The government is footing the bill for a month-long TV recycling scheme across New South Wales and Victoria, starting today, despite a similar national e-waste recycling scheme that will be paid for by manufacturers coming in later in the year.The Australian, Victorian and New South Wales governments have opened a free initiative between June 30 and July 31 for residents in regional areas of Victoria and New South Wales to drop off old TVs for recycling.
The rural NSW-Vic border areas have been some of the first to see the switchover from analogue to digital signals, and as a result many have been taking the opportunity to upgrade their TVs rather than simply buying a digital set top box for their older TV, according to Federal Minister for Broadband, Senator Stephen Conroy.
The move comes despite the fact that electronics manufacturers have just been given the burden of responsibility in e-waste recycling, with the recent Product Stewardship Bill being passed by the Senate just two weeks ago from today.
“But until the scheme is up and running we want to make sure people switching to digital television services early in regional areas have a way of responsibly dealing with any television waste,” said Environment Minister Tony Burke.
The legislation will see the big electronics companies (both in Australia and from abroad) fronting the cost of a nation-wide recycling scheme that will pay for the recycling of goods like TVs and phones at the initial sale rather than afterwards at the hands of consumers. It’s been noted that the cost will most likely roll down to consumers though, both within the industry and by observers.|
The scheme, which will see used electronic goods being picked up and taken off for processing into their individual components and recycled and sold, is expected to begin rolling out by the end of the year and will continue over five years in phases.
