News and Media

How Frogs Helped Invent Batteries

The story of the invention of batteries nicely illustrates how an unexpected observation can stimulate curious minds and lead to new inventions with world-changing results. It begins in 1780 with Luigi Galvani dissecting a frog attached to a brass hook. When he touched the frog’s leg with an iron scalpel it twitched. Galvani’s friend, Alessandro Volta, thought that it might have something to do with a moist connector (the dead frog) joining two different metals. That led to further experiment…

The Easy Way To Recycle Batteries

Australia has a pretty poor record when it comes to battery recycling. Over 90% of dead batteries, hundreds of thousands a year, end up in landfill. It just adds to our waste problem and increases the risk of toxic chemicals polluting our environment. It’s also a waste of valuable, reusable resources. The good news is, when it comes to recycling batteries, nothing could be easier. We're Here To Help You With Your Battery Waste If you generate larger volumes of battery waste, for examp…

What Can Schools Recycle?

There are so many things Australian schools can easily recycle, and starting a recycling program is a great way to get local community members such as students, parents and teachers involved. Take a look at our school recycling guide and see all the things that can be recycled to help make a difference. Recycle The Regular Things Schools can recycle the common things that we are used to recycling at home. Paper and cardboard, plastic and glass bottles, aluminium cans and other drink containers…

How Your Workplace Can Run Its Own Battery Recycling Scheme

Did you know that old batteries can be recycled? Even better, did you know you could set up your own workplace scheme in the office or warehouse to collect old batteries from both work and home? Join the thousands of Australian workplaces making a real difference. Recycling your old batteries makes a real contribution to cleaning up the environment, and it’s dead easy. Anyone in a company can get the ball rolling. Here’s how to do it. Get The Boss Onside This step is easy if you are t…

Why My Phone Battery Never Lasts A Day: 4 Tips To Make Your Battery Last Longer

We all share the pain of our smartphone dying when we need it the most, which leaves us thinking "why did I play that extra game of Candy Crush?!". Ten years ago, phone batteries lasted for days without needing a charge but now, the battery indicator drops even quicker. So, what is happening with your smart phone to make it go flat? So, What’s Going On? When you charge your phone battery, lithium ions move from the cathode, made of lithium cobalt oxide, to the anode, which is made of graphi…

Lamps and tubes in a stillage waiting to be recycled.

Four Easy Steps To Recycling Fluorescent Bulbs And Lighting

Ecocycle is Australia’s largest fluorescent lights recycling company. We also recycle light bulbs that don’t contain mercury. In Australia, disposing of light bulbs usually means dumping millions of them into landfill. The problem is, fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent lamps contain mercury. It may only be a small amount per lamp, but with such large volumes involved this waste stream represents a significant source of mercury pollution. It takes just one gram of mercury to contaminate…

Tiny Villains Of Mercury Pollution Are More Common Than We Thought

While mercury in its metallic form is toxic, a bigger problem occurs when mercury spreads into the environment. Once mercury is released into the environment, some types of bacteria convert the metal into methylmercury. This is a far more poisonous substance. It is readily absorbed by fish and other animals, and can build up to dangerous levels as it is concentrated up the food chain, all the way up to humans. Methylmercury is the cause of the devastating Minamata Disease. Now recent resea…

What Can Other Countries Teach Us About Battery Recycling?

When it comes to recycling batteries, Australia’s has a lot of room for improvement. A detailed study commissioned by the Australian Battery Recycling Initiative (ABRI) in 2010 showed that out of a total of 11,904 tonnes of waste handheld batteries (those that weigh less than one kilogram) just 750 tonnes (pdf) were responsibly recycled. That’s a measly recycling rate of just 6.3%. Since then we’ve got worse. This year ABRI cited a recycling rate of just 3% for these batteries. Given that Aus…

Ecocycle featured in the Australian mining review

Ecocycle was recently featured in the June issue of The Australian Mining Review. Mining waste comes in many different forms, and unfortunately, a large number of its compounds that are extracted are mixed with poisonous materials such as cadmium, arsenic and mercury. Ecocycle works with many of the larger mining waste companies, we also work directly with large industrial clients to help keep hazardous contaminants out of the environment. We are the only company in Australia with the expe…

Five ways your business can celebrate Earth Day 2016

Five ways businesses can celebrate earth day April 22 is Earth Day. It represents a global movement to inspire, challenge ideas, ignite passion, and motivate people to take action on environmental issues. The event has come a long way from its founding in 1970 and it is now celebrated by more than one billion people around the world each year. But Earth Day isn’t just for individuals; businesses can get involved too. Here are some ways your business can celebrate ‘Happy New Earth Year’: 1…

Ecocycle Boosts Mercury Recycling At ADX2016 Sydney

Ecocycle is proud to have been a major sponsor of Australia’s largest dental exhibition, ADX16, held in Sydney last month. The Ecocycle Café and Ecocycle Drinks helped to raise awareness of the brand and, more importantly, spark interest in amalgam recycling by dental practices that haven’t yet installed amalgam separators. Also giving a boost to the cause of safe mercury waste disposal was a product showcase presentation by Ecocycle’s dental specialist, Mr Ian Crawford. His talk, Remov…

How Is Mining Waste Recycled?

Mining waste comes in many forms and varies from harmless to highly hazardous. Much of it has little or no economic value but the mining industry is making an effort to find new uses for waste to reduce environmental impacts. And with the prices of commodities moving up and down by large amounts, what may be waste today can suddenly become a valuable resource tomorrow. Here's a quick look at what happens to some of the leftovers of mining and resource extraction.…

E-Waste Recycling: Getting Treasure From Trash

Once the bulky boring bits that make up most of the electronic waste stream have been removed, recyclers are left to deal with an incredibly complex mix of metals and other components. Some of that complexity is found in the lithium batteries that power most of our mobile devices. Battery recycling involves a mix of shredding, physical metal separation and wet chemistry to recover carbon, cobalt and lithium. Then it’s on to the real challenge: the printed circuit boards (PCBs).…

July – September ADIA Dental Survey 2015: Key Takeaways

The latest results of the ADIA Dental Practice Business Conditions Survey reveal that the July-September quarter of 2015 was a difficult one for dentists. While new patients held steady between July and September, the total number of patients seen was down in all states. Business conditions held up best in NSW/ACT, with just a moderate downward trend, whereas WA and SA/NT dentists saw a significant fall in patient numbers in their dental clinics. There was also an increase in vacant appointme…

A Victorian Ban on E-Waste Being Sent To Landfill Is Coming

While specific schemes for recycling some types of e-waste exist – things like mobile phones, printer cartridges, computers and TVs – rates of electronic recycling in Victoria are still relatively low. For example, under the national stewardship program for recycling televisions and computers, just 37% of discarded items are required to be recycled in 2015-2016. That’s a fraction of the final target of 80% by 2026, and for many other types of electronic waste the recycling rate is effectively…

Ecocycle acquires Ecocycle Australia

Ecocycle are pleased to announce the acquisition of Ecocycle Australia, effective from 1st October 2015. Ecocycle will take on board all existing Ecocycle Australia clients, continuing to offer a comprehensive recycling and recovering solution for their existing clients. All customers and suppliers previously working with Ecocycle Australia are advised that all assets that were used in carrying out business are now owned by Ecocycle. This includes all stillages (used for storing and transp…

Visit Us At The 2015 Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo

The Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo is on at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre from 12-13 August, and we’ll be there. The expo is free to anyone looking for waste management and recycling solutions. Ecocycle is the only mercury recycler to be fully licensed by the Environmental Protection Agencies in each state to handle the entire process of recycling mercury-containing waste. We are ideally placed to help you dispose of fluorescent tubes and bulbs, dental amalgam w…

Pat A Pig Or Go Into Hiding: Extreme Ways To Address Dentist Phobia

How would you like to start your next visit to the dentist? Fondle a ferret? Pat a pig? Or perhaps chase a dachshund? These are some of the possibilities at the practice of Welsh dentist Dr Mark Boulcott. In addition to pigs, ferrets and dogs, Mark’s ‘zoo’ has terrapins, horses and a variety of birds to help put his patients at ease. He says that the element of surprise means that his rather extreme approach to tackling fear of the dentist works with both adults and children. And with childre…

Find What You’re Looking For On Our New Website

Since our change of ownership earlier this year we’ve been working hard to re-commission equipment, process the backlog of waste left by the former owners and restore Ecocycle to its position as Australia’s premier recycler of mercury. To compliment these changes behind the scenes, we’ve also created a brand new website. The new website reflects our commitment to protecting the environment and providing an outstanding level of service to all of our customers. It focuses on the main industries…

Where Does Mercury Come From?

Mercury is an environmental hazard that is used by industry, which can cause mercury poisoning and deadly Minamata Disease, but where exactly does it come from? Fact is, it is a natural part of our environment. It occurs pretty much everywhere, but mostly in such tiny quantities that it doesn’t cause any harm. The problem is that mercury and its chemical compounds turned out to be useful for all sorts of things. The colourful mineral cinnabar, or mercury sulphide, has been used as a pigment f…

Behold The Beauty Of The Humble Light Bulb

Good old incandescent globes have been lighting our way for over a century. Most of us install them and discard them without a second look, but have you ever peered inside a light globe and wondered how these little marvels of engineering are made? Here’s the video to satisfy your curiosity. Watch carefully for the part where the all-important filament gets added. It’s quite an engineering feat in its own right. The spiral that we can see with the naked eye is actually a ‘coiled coil’ that neatl…

It's time to modernise the way most dental surgeries deal with amalgam waste. Image: Tasmanian Archive & Heritage Office via Flickr (CC)

Will Australia Follow The US On Amalgam Separators?

The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) recently released a proposal to require dental practices to install amalgam separators to control the discharge of dental amalgam pollutants. In the US, dental offices are the largest single source of the mercury that flows through water treatment works, contributing about half of total amount of mercury that ends up in water treatment systems. It’s reasonable to assume that it is a similar situation in Australia. So why is that a problem? Al…

Extra Cash Every Week For Victorian Sparkies with VEET

Victorian electrical contractors are saving their customers heaps of money just by changing a few light globes. With a lot of the cost covered by a state government rebate, householders and businesses are jumping at the chance to ditch their halogens, incandescent globes and even fluorescent lighting in favour of new, energy efficient lights. That’s creating a lot of work for Victoria’s switched-on sparkies, but the good times won’t last forever. Get Started with VEET There are a couple of …

The Victorian Scheme That Helps Sparkies Help The Environment

UPDATE: If you're a sparky that wants to get started with the VEET scheme, click here to find out how. The VEET is a fantastic initiative, and one that we fully support. Electricians can actually make money by helping households and businesses to save money. The scheme makes it cheaper to ditch energy-guzzling appliances and lighting for more energy-efficient replacements and it is cutting Victoria’s carbon dioxide emissions by millions of tons each year. That’s good news. The bad news is…

Do You Work With Mercury? The Four Things You Must Know About The Minamata Convention

Many people who work with mercury don’t even know it. It is present in fluorescent lighting, some types of dental, medical and mining waste, and in a wide range of industrial equipment. If you have anything to do with these industries, your obligation for their safe disposal is about to increase. We've put together four key things you need to know about Minamata, and what it means for you and your business. 1. The Minamata Convention Keeps Mercury Out Of Our Environment And Waterwa…

Mercury Kills Thousands Every Year. The Minamata Convention Is Here To Change That.

In the mid-1950s doctors in the Japanese city of Minamata began to see patients with severe neurological symptoms. Many died a horrible death. Eventually, Minamata disease was found to be the result of mercury poisoning. A nearby chemical plant was pouring a highly toxic form of mercury, methylmercury, into the sea. Methylmercury is bio-magnified – small fish are eaten by bigger fish, and methylmercury levels increase up the food chain until the big fish are eaten by people. Now, nearly 60 ye…

How Dentists Make The Best Lovers

It turns out your dentist could have quite an influence on your sex life. And no, we aren’t suggesting anything unprofessional! It’s all to do with the way in which a good set of teeth appeals to the opposite sex – and the answer is ‘a lot’. We are quick to form opinions when meeting someone new and, not unreasonably, we consider the state of someone’s teeth to be an indicator of their overall health and ‘reproductive fitness’. In a survey of single men and women conducted in the US last y…

How LEDified Doubles Its Environmental Achievement

Every month LED lighting specialist LEDified replaces around 40,000 halogen lights, fluorescent tubes and high bay lights with low-energy LED lights. It’s important work that contributes significantly to the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target (VEET) and the equivalent Energy Saving Scheme (ESS) in New South Wales. The aim of these schemes is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by making it cheaper for householders and businesses to install energy-saving technology. Verified destruction It’s one…

What Is The Future Of Lighting Waste?

Back when Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison where figuring out how to produce viable light bulbs, dealing with lighting waste wasn’t much of an issue. The light globes might not have lasted all that long, but the contents weren’t particularly nasty, and nobody would have given a second thought to throwing them away. The Mercury Problem Fluorescent tubes and mercury vapour lamps have been around for nearly as long, and many types of fluorescent lighting waste are considered hazardous waste. As a re…

Five Stunning Uses For X-rays Outside Of Hospitals

Chances are you’ve had an X-ray to check for broken bones, find the source of that niggling back pain or to reveal holes hiding in your teeth. X-rays are also the basis of CT scans that reveal, slice by slice, a detailed picture of our inner workings. But these magical rays that can see through flesh and bone can be put to many more uses. Here are just a few that have caught our eye. 1. Take A Peek Inside A Mummy In earlier days of Egyptian archaeology numerous mummies were unwrapped and pr…