Invest in e-waste

E-waste is growing 3 times faster than general municipal waste in Australia. Victoria is expected to generate 250,000 tonnes of e-waste by 2035.

E-waste is predominantly comprised of metals (60%), plastics (21%), and glass (8%), with small amounts of various materials.

The increase in supply

Sustainability Victoria recently published the Victorian e-waste material flow analysis (MFA) highlighting the continuing growth of this harmful and valuable waste stream, presenting both issues and opportunities. The new MFA builds on the model initially developed for Sustainability Victoria in 2015 underpinning the Victorian e-waste landfill ban that commenced on 1 July 2019. The ban necessitates an increase in domestic e-waste recovery along with reducing the risk of impacts on public health and the environment.

Following this ban, the state government has invested more than $16.5 million in:

• upgrading e-waste collection and storage facilities across the state
• building infrastructure enabling e-waste to be safely recycled.
• delivering an education campaign supporting the ban.

The federal National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) also gives households and small businesses free access to industry-funded collection and recycling services The Australian government is currently consulting on the expansion of the NTCRS to include small electrical products and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, as a priority for a mandated product stewardship approach.

Australia’s official battery stewardship scheme, B-cycle launched in 2022. The scheme gives consumers free access to drop off collection points in major supermarkets and DIY stores. Currently loose personal batteries are the focus. Various other smaller schemes exist such as Mobile Muster which targets mobile phone collection and re-use and recycling.

For more information

• National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme.
• The stewardship priority products.
• B-cycle Battery Recycling
• Mobile Muster.

The Victorian and Australian Governments are actively pursuing mechanisms to increase the recovery and reprocessing of e-waste, batteries and PV panels, including mandating product stewardship schemes, investing in additional infrastructure, emerging techniques and technologies.

Opportunities

There are opportunities for investors to participate in Victoria’s local e-waste reprocessing industry, including projected high volumes of PV panels, batteries, products collected through an expanded NTCRS scheme and other high-value e-waste streams.

• Significant mechanical reprocessing infrastructure capability is needed to enable high-value e-waste materials to be recovered, recycled and sorted across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
• Emerging techniques and technologies for improved mechanical and optical, thermal, chemical, nano and biological processing.
• PV panels and lithium batteries are an emerging e-waste stream expected to rapidly grow in future years due to the significant capacity of installed PV systems reaching end of life and rapid adoption of battery storage in cars, households and businesses.

Stay up to date

For the latest investment opportunities and material commodity prices read Recycling Victoria’s market insight reports.

Graphs and data

For more information on waste data visit Recycling Victoria’s Data Hub.

Learn more

• The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) manages and enforces Victoria’s e-waste policy and provides guidelines on managing e-waste including how to store, reprocess and dispose of it safely. Read EPA’s advice on e-waste.

• Victoria’s E-waste collection network provides a list of certified e-waste drop off sites. Find your local e-waste collection site.