Negotiating the national e-waste mountain
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Written by Mary-Lou Considine, Science Alert
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Wednesday, 05 August 2009 |
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Australians are generating electronic waste – discarded computers, TVs, mobile phones, DVDs, printers, keyboards, cameras, iPods and game consoles – at an unprecedented rate.
In 2006, we threw out around 1.6 million computers alone, and the volume has risen since. Over the past decade, we’ve committed an estimated 37 million computers and 17 million TV sets to landfill, as a result of our constant demand for new electronic products.
Yet, while Australia is among the top 10 consumers of electronic technology in the world, we are behind many OECD countries in our recycling rates: 1.5 per cent for computers, less than 1 per cent for TVs and less than 4 per cent for mobile phones.
[READ FULL ARTICLE AT SCIENCE ALERT]
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