Whittlesea council is hosting a series of free e-waste collections throughout the year across different areas of the municipality.
The collections will accept any item with a plug, cord or battery that is no longer working or wanted and cannot be placed into general household rubbish or recycling bins.
Whittlesea council chief executive Craig Lloyd said that the e-waste drop-off events help to support and encourage residents to properly dispose of their waste.
“As part of our Rethinking Waste Plan 2021-30, our key goals are to avoid waste generation, recover and recycle as much as possible and protect the health and safety of our community and the environment from the impacts of waste,” he said.
“We are seeing an increase in dumped rubbish in some suburbs and we are taking a zero-tolerance approach. We encourage all of our residents to dispose of all their waste responsibly.”
The collected e-waste is taken to a processing facility where items are taken apart, shredded and sorted. The individual components and valuable materials such as tin, copper, gold, silver, aluminium and zinc are recovered for reuse into new products.
In 2019, the state government banned the disposal of e-waste to landfill acknowledging the risks of hazardous materials and the potential to recycle valuable materials.
When recycled correctly, materials can be recovered and reused in the creation of new products, rather than relying on the mining raw non-renewable material.
Whittlesea residents can also drop off e-waste for free at Hanson’s Wollert Landfill or SRS Metals in Thomastown.
Small e-waste items such as cameras, mobile phones or iPods can be taken to one of the council’s recycling stations.
The next e-waste collection date is Wednesday May 10, at Main Street Recreation Reserve in Thomastown.
Information: www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au/waste,
Hannah Hammoud
