Recycling Dental Amalgam Couldn’t Be Easier
For over 20 years Ecocycle has been collecting and recycling the mercury from dental amalgam waste and to us, it’s more than just a job. Each year an average Australian dental surgery produces around 1kg of amalgam waste containing about 500g of mercury metal. It takes just one gram of mercury to contaminate a billion […]
SA’s REES Scheme Opens Up New Opportunities For Sparkies
The South Australian Retailer Energy Efficiency Scheme (REES) commenced on the 1st of January 2015, and will run until 2020. It requires larger energy retailers to help households and businesses save energy, opening up new opportunities for electrical contractors. REES Covers A Lot Of Options Under REES, energy retailers can offer a wide range of […]
What Elephant Seals Teach Us About Our Mercury Waste
Scientists in California have discovered that seawater has become polluted by mercury 17 times above normal levels. Año Nuevo State Reserve has a large elephant seal population and local researchers found that when elephant seals go through their annual moult, the fur and skin they shed contained so much mercury that the level of mercury in the […]
Dentists, When Was The Last Time Your Amalgam Filter Was Serviced?
Amalgam separators are so unobtrusive it’s easy to forget that they are there. Connected to the drainage system of dental chairs, all they need is the power of gravity to trap dental amalgam and prevent large quantities of mercury from entering the environment. Because your amalgam separator works away quietly in the background, many dental clinics forget […]
Five Things Building Managers Can Do To Help The Environment
Commercial buildings are a significant source of waste, and in multi-tenanted buildings anything beyond basic waste collection is often left up to the individual businesses. However, it’s easy for building maintenance managers to introduce some simple initiatives that provide value to their clients and a payoff for the environment. 1. Champion A Battery Recycling Program […]
How The NSW Energy Savings Scheme (ESS) Benefits Sparkies
Electrical contractors in New South Wales wanting to boost business should take a look at the Energy Savings Scheme (ESS). It provides a significant financial incentive for businesses and home-owners to undertake activities that reduce their energy use. How ESS Works When an eligible activity that reduces electricity consumption is completed, energy savings certificates (ESCs) […]
Australia, The Fourth Biggest Producer Of Municipal Waste: Let’s Do Better!
Did you know the average Australian produces 647 kg of municipal waste every year? According to a recent report, Australians are the fourth biggest producer of municipal waste in the world, only lagging behind Denmark, the US and Switzerland. While not all that waste comes from rubbish bins at our homes (some of it represents municipal waste […]
Riches From Old Batteries And E-Waste
Recycling is an increasingly important part of our economy, for two major reasons. For one, it plays a major role in preventing the environmental pollution that occurs when hazardous materials are dumped. The second is that it recovers valuable resources for reuse. Batteries and electronic waste (e waste) contain a complex mix of materials that […]
How Fluorescent Tubes Are Recovered By A Lamp Recycler
Disposing of fluorescent tubes, lamps and bulbs is a particular concern as they contain the highly toxic metal, mercury. At any given moment there are billions of light globes and fluorescent tubes lighting up our lives, but old light bulbs and tubes eventually give up the ghost and create a mountain of waste. Fortunately, lamp […]
What Can 22 Million Recycled Phones Do?
If you have any old phones that you want to throw away, you can find drop-off points on Mobile Muster’s website here, or print off reply paid labels and post them in. Recycling Electronics– More Than Just Phones There is far more to e waste disposal than just mobile phones. Think of all the printers, […]
Five Types Of Old Batteries Your Workplace Can Easily Recycle
Our modern world relies on all sorts of batteries, from the little button cells that go into hearing aids through to huge, shipping container sized batteries that provide industrial-scale backup power. And that reliance is increasing as we develop stronger attachments to a growing suite or electronic devices. Battery Recycling Is Here To Help All […]
What Ireland Can Teach Us About Fluorescent Bulb Recycling
In Ireland, retailers that sell compact fluorescent lamps and tubes are required to offer a free recycling service. For each bulb or tube purchased, retailers are obliged to accept an equivalent tube or lamp for recycling. As a result, about 30% of fluoro lamps and tubes are recycled in Ireland. While that’s a lot higher […]
What Can You Recycle In Your Office?
How does your office rate when it comes to recycling? Is it a one-bin, out-of-sight-out-of-mind, somebody else’s problem type of office? Or is it a reduce-reuse-recycle sort of place where everyone separates apple cores from drink bottles and nothing ever goes in the wrong bin? Chances are it’s somewhere in between, and even though we […]
Is Fish Sperm The Next Big Thing In Metal Recycling?
A group of Japanese scientists have started experimenting with salmon milt (sperm), believing it could be used to recycle valuable rare earth metals as part of the electronic waste recovery process. Nothing Goes To Waste Not only is fish milt a rich source of DNA, the fishing industry in Japan discards thousands of tonnes of […]
The Easy Way For Businesses To Recycle X-Rays And Film
Like most areas of imaging, X-rays have gone digital, but there are still large quantities of old, silver-based X-ray film filling up storage space in hospitals and radiology centres around Australia. Just as vinyl records still have their fans, silver-based films remain in use in some parts of the imaging industry. If you’re an Australian business […]
A Major Step Towards A Cleaner Dental Industry
The Industry is pleased to announce a ground-breaking agreement that will help to significantly reduce the amount of toxic mercury that enters the environment. All major companies that currently supply amalgam retention cups to dentists, Cattani, Ritter Dental with their Metasys range and Dürr (on behalf of their agents) Henry Schein, Ivoclar, Sirona and William […]
South Australian Sparkies Lead The Way On Fluoro Recycling
South Australia is widely recognised as a leader in recycling and waste reduction. Its famous 10 cent deposit on drinks containers has been in place since 1975 and checkout-style plastic bags were given the flick in 2009. Since 2010, bans on dumping a growing list of waste types in landfill have given recycling rates a […]
Electricians Win More Tenders with ISO 14001 Accreditation
Proper disposal of mercury waste plays a crucial part of protecting our environment, so it won’t come as any surprise that, as Australia’s leading lamp recycler, Ecocycle is committed to the highest standards. That’s why we are accredited to the internationally recognised environmental management standard ISO 14001. What may be less obvious is how our accreditation […]
It’s Easy To Recycle E Waste
While an important part of our everyday life, technology is always changing and evolving. Today’s new big thing is tomorrow’s electronic waste, and we are producing mountains of the stuff. Computers, TVs, phones and tablets contain a mix of both valuable and hazardous materials. It’s really easy for businesses to responsibly manage electronic waste disposal with a […]
FluoroCycle: Cleaning Up Australia’s Lighting Industry
According to the Lighting Council of Australia (LCA), Australia’s peak lighting industry body, 90-95% of mercury-containing lighting waste is sent to landfill. To help do something about that appalling figure, the LCA established FluoroCycle. FluoroCycle is a voluntary product stewardship scheme. It aims to increase the level of fluorescent lamp recycling by targeting the commercial […]
