News and Media

How do I recycle old power tools?

Power tools make up a substantial portion of Australia’s electrical and electronic waste (e-waste). Traditionally they’ve ended up in landfill at the end of their working lives, but with states rolling out bans on the dumping of e-waste in landfill, power tool owners will need to find new ways to dispose of old tools. The only viable (and, in the long term, legal) method of disposing of power tools will be to recycle them. A typical power tool mostly contains aluminium, steel, copper and p…

5 benefits of recycling lighting

Every year many millions of incandescent light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and LED lamps get dumped into landfills around Australia. That contributes to a number of major problems, all of which can be avoided by recycling old lighting. Here are five main benefits of recycling: 1. Keep harmful materials out of the environment Possibly the greatest lighting waste hazard is the mercury contained in fluoro tubes, CFLs and vapour lamps. When disposed of into lan…

How a workplace e-waste recycling program can save your business money

E-waste is the fastest growing category of waste, fuelled by our insatiable appetite for the latest gadget and the sheer ubiquity of electrical and electronic equipment. E-waste is something that every business needs to deal with but, in too many cases, the e-waste policy of the corporate sector is simply to dump it in a hole in the ground. Fortunately, attitudes are changing, and it isn’t just the environment that benefits. E-waste recycling can also save businesses money. Here’s how: …

How a workplace lighting recycling program can save your business money

A small fraction of Australia’s lighting waste gets recycled each year. Historically, the generators of lighting waste have simply dumped the problem into landfill, but when businesses opt for the dump, they could be missing out on an opportunity to reap some significant short and long-term savings. Here’s how a workplace lighting recycling program can save your business money: 1. Reduced immediate costs Most state and territory governments have introduced landfill levies that have incre…

Can I recycle broken medical equipment?

Keeping us healthy and treating us when we are sick requires a wide range of different types of medical equipment. So, is broken medical equipment recyclable? It all depends on the specifics – the nature of the equipment, how much of it there is, and whether it contains hazardous materials or components. Why recycle? There are two main reasons to recycle broken medical equipment. The first is to extract any hazardous materials to prevent them being released into the environment. Ex…

What is e-waste? A definitive guide to understanding electrical waste and how it is recycled

E-waste: It stands for electrical and electronic waste, and it’s usually defined as anything that plugs into a power point or runs on batteries and that has reached the end of its useful life. That doesn’t mean something is broken; it may just be technologically obsolete. Some people expand the definition of e-waste to include related items such as video cassettes and floppy disks – things that depend on electrical equipment to function. With such a broad definition, it’s clear that e-w…

Ecocycle supports industry-led battery recycling program Exitcycle

Australia’s commercial and public buildings are home to about 30 million emergency exit lights. Most of these rely on nickel cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries, along with smaller numbers of nickel metal hydride and sealed lead acid batteries. An estimated five million Ni-Cd batteries, containing 90 tonnes of the toxic heavy metal cadmium, are dumped in landfill every year. To address this problem the Lighting Council of Australia, with the support of the Queensland government, has relaunched it…

Where can I recycle lighting in Australia?

Most people don’t know it, but it is both possible and desirable to recycle lighting waste in Australia. Much of our lighting – fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and some types of high intensity lamps – contains mercury. If these lights are not recycled, that mercury ends up polluting our environment. Aside from the toxic material in some lamps, all lighting contains glass and metals – highly recyclable materials that should be used to produce new items rather than bei…

Large companies’ recycling efforts could spur small businesses to follow

What do manufacturing and retailing giants Unilever, Renault, Nike and H&M have in common? They are all actively engaged in lifting the recycling rates of the products they sell, and the phrase ‘circular economy’ is on their corporate lips as they work to reduce their impacts on the environment. Unilever aims to shift to 100% recyclable packaging by 2025, to recover more of its own packaging from consumers, and to increase the level of recycled plastic in its packaging to 25%, also by …

Should Queensland introduce a state-wide waste levy?

Most states and territories in Australia charge a levy on the disposal of waste to landfill. The exceptions are Queensland and the Northern Territory. The purpose of the levies is to make it relatively more expensive to dump waste in landfill, and relatively cheaper to recycle. The levies also allow governments to provide grants to the recycling industry, allowing greater investment in new recycling facilities. The downside of landfill levies is that they have been associated with an in…

Why it’s so important to recycle mercury thermostats

US leads the way In 1998 several American thermostat manufacturers established a non-profit stewardship program called the Thermostat Recycling Corporation (TRC). In total, it has collected 2.1 million thermostats containing 10 tons (9.1 tonnes) of mercury. “Logistically, the TRC model works in a similar way to our lamp and battery recycling programs so it’s something we could replicate quite easily,” Mr Moyle said. “We will be talking to state governments and the HVAC (heating, ventilati…

Ecocycle has partnered with PNG firm Total Waste Management to process fluorescent lighting. (Pictured: Port Moresby, eGuide Travel, Flickr CC)

Ecocycle featured on inside waste

Details about Ecocycle's partnership with Total Waste Management (TWM) in Papua New Guinea was recently featured on Inside Waste. The article talks about how Ecocycle has partnered with TWM to reverse the historically negative story of international transfers of toxic waste. "With appropriate licenses from the environment protection agencies in both countries, Ecocycle will take mercury-containing waste collected by TWM, primarily fluorescent lighting, and process it in its facilities in M…

Another company falsely touted as ‘Australia’s only mercury treatment plant’

Another company has falsely claimed it is Australia’s only mercury treatment plant. In this Pilbara News article, New Zealand-based business Contract Resources has been touted as “Australia’s only mercury treatment plant” in an announcement that it will construct a LNG waste processing facility in Karratha, Western Australia. This comes after Dutch company BMT claimed it has no competitors in mercury treatment in Australia. Both companies overlook the fact that Ecocycle has been delivering…

What does China’s ban on foreign garbage mean for local recycling in Australia?

China’s campaign against foreign garbage has hit the Australian recycling industry hard. As part of the campaign, China has blocked the import of recyclable materials in which contaminants constitute more the 0.5% of the waste. This is an extremely tough target to meet and places an effective ban on sending recyclables, mostly paper and plastics, to China for processing. Australia is far from the only country affected. Europe, the UK and US have also relied on China to take materials ra…

GPS trackers reveal Australian e-waste is being sent to developing countries

When you drop off your old computer at a recycling centre, particularly one that is a member of a government-endorsed recycling program, you have every right to expect that your e-waste will be safely recycled. You should also be able to expect that most of the recycling will take place within Australia, in accord with international conventions. So how do we stack up? An investigation by the Basel Action Network (BAN) indicates we need to do better. Revealing where the e-waste landed BAN…

How does Ecocycle collect, transport, store and recycle medical waste?

Ecocycle’s original interest in medical waste was in the recovery of mercury from instruments such as thermometers and sphygmomanometers (blood pressure monitors). These items still make up a significant fraction of the medical waste we receive, but these days the biggest component of the medical waste stream that we recycle comprises old x-ray films. X-ray films can take up a lot of storage space in hospitals and radiology clinics. In one case, we removed over 50 tonnes of x-ray films …

What can national and public parks recycle?

Whether it’s a huge national park or a small local reserve, parks and gardens improve our wellbeing and play an important role in creating a healthy environment. While municipal parks may provide rubbish and recycling bins for use by the public, to stay neat and tidy more remote parks will often rely on visitors to take their rubbish home. But management and maintenance of parks also generates a wide range of wastes, and to remain faithful to the cause of being good for the environment, it…

Certified destruction: How Ecocycle destroys personal information attached to items recycled

What happens to your data when you discard your old mobile phone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer or memory card? With identity theft a major and growing problem it’s a question we all need to answer before deciding on a disposal method for any item that holds data. And remember, it isn’t enough just to delete files from computers and devices. With appropriate software these files can be recovered. As long as your old computers and phones remain intact, there’s a risk that your preciou…

Are your Christmas lights broken? Here’s how you can recycle them

Australia may not be in the same league as America when it comes to Christmas light displays. However, as more people get into the festive lighting spirit one thing is certain – more Christmas lighting adds up to more electrical and electronic waste (e-waste). No one wants to be the Grinch so decorate away, but when your Christmas lights become old and broken please do the right thing and make sure they are safely recycled. One distinguishing feature of Christmas lighting is its sheer d…

How to choose the right recycling supplier for your business

As the concept of the circular economy becomes more mainstream, recycling is playing an increasingly important role in maximising the amount of ‘waste’ that is repurposed as a ‘resource’. The upshot? All businesses that produce any type of waste should be on the lookout for recycling opportunities. But with recycling solutions being developed for an increasing range of waste types, and with new providers popping up regularly, how do you choose the right recycler for your business? Here …

What’s the cost of not recycling in Australia?

China’s recent ban on importing many types of waste has highlighted major weaknesses in the way in which Australia and similar countries have approached recycling. Now it appears that the situation is twice as bad as originally thought. With China’s door closed and with other countries lacking sufficient recycling capacity, more than a million tonnes of metals, paper and plastics now need to be dealt with in Australia. We’re about to discover the many real costs of not recycling in Aust…

How does Ecocycle collect, transport, store and recycle lighting?

Ecocycle provides complete lighting recycling solutions for organisations of all sizes. Because we control the entire process from start to finish, you can rest assured that your waste lighting will be recycled responsibly, safely and in compliance with all applicable regulations. Here’s how we collect, transport, store and recycle lighting: Collection Our involvement begins right at the point where lighting becomes waste – at your premises. We supply collection containers matched to you…

What types of lighting can schools recycle?

Schools do a great job of encouraging and implementing recycling programs. But have you ever wanted to know what types of lighting schools can recycle? The short answer is: all types of lighting can be recycled by schools. Now let’s delve into the details. Fluorescent lighting Fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) make up most of the lighting used in most schools. They also represent the main environmental hazard due to the mercury they contain. As long as fluoresc…

Ecocycle response to EPA Victoria’s public notice

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria recently published a public notice in major newspapers announcing that the previous owner of Ecocycle, CMA Recycling Pty Ltd (In Liquidation), had been found guilty of storing prescribed industrial waste, including mercury, at a site in Reo Crescent in Campbellfield without a licence. CMA Recycling Pty Ltd (In Liquidation) was fined $60,000 and ordered to pay EPA Victoria’s costs of $52,193.41. Given that the guilty party went into liquidati…

How does Ecocycle collect, transport, store and recycle dental amalgam?

Dental amalgam does a great job in combating tooth decay, but they don’t last forever and often need replacing. If old amalgam fillings are discarded into the sewers, they end up in waterways and the ocean. There, bacteria convert metallic mercury into the highly dangerous methylmercury. That’s the form that contaminates fish, and can end up back on our dinner plates. Ecocycle’s dental amalgam recycling program provides a closed-loop recycling solution that keeps mercury out of the envi…

What Are Councils Doing To Recycle Lighting?

Recently we looked at the level of support given by local councils to battery recycling and found a mixed result. Some councils provided battery collection services through their offices and depots, others actually recommended tossing them into a normal rubbish bin. So, how about lighting recycling? Fluorescent lighting waste is top of our list of things local councils should be recycling, so what advice and services are councils providing to residents and businesses when it comes to fl…

Call For NT Government To Take The Lead On Lighting And E-Waste

Ecocycle and Rusca Environmental Solutions are delighted to announce that they have entered into a formal agreement that will boost hazardous waste recycling in the Northern Territory. Ecocycle is Australia’s only fully licensed recycler of mercury-containing waste, and a major recycler of lighting, battery and other types of electronic waste. Rusca Environmental Solutions is a division of the Rusca Group, an Aboriginal-owned company with more than 40 years’ experience in delivering civil …

Minamata Convention On Mercury Comes Into Force

The Minamata Convention on Mercury has officially entered into force, 61 years after the first cases of what came to be known as Minamata disease were identified in the Japanese coastal city of the same name. The convention came into force on August 16, and the first conference of the parties will take place from September 24 to 29 in Geneva, Switzerland. The cause of the horrendous neurological symptoms was identified as mercury poisoning, as a chemical plant had been discharging large qu…

What’s a recycling certificate and what do I need it for?

A recycling certificate documents the amount and type of waste that your organisation has recycled. The certificate can be used to show that your company is compliant with government standards and recycling policies, and shows your commitment to sustainable business standards. Here are three ways in which recycling certificates can benefit your business: 1. Provide proof of compliance with government requirements Several state governments have implemented energy efficiency schemes. The V…

3 Household Products We’d Love To See Tackled On ABC’s War On Waste

Across three chilling episodes of the ABC series War On Waste, Craig Reucassel lifted the lid on several of Australia’s dirty little secrets. Sorry, make that dirty BIG secrets, because the amount of stuff we throw away every day is nothing less than shocking. War On Waste focused on high volume wastes including food, clothing, disposal coffee cups and plastics, particularly the all-pervasive plastic bag. But among the astounding statistics (Australians throw away $8 billion worth of ed…