Search

News and Media

Old thermostats may contain mercury.
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)
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…
Laser Group And Ecocycle Switch On Lighting Recycling Partnership
It might not quite have been love at first sight, but when Laser Group and Ecocycle first met they were clearly a perfect match. Laser Group is a leading network of electrical and plumbing contractors spread across Australia. Ecocycle is Australia’s only fully licensed recycler of mercury and a major battery recycler. Many of Laser Group’s national network of nearly 90 electrical contracting firms are helping Australian householders and businesses slash their greenhouse gas emissions and s…
The Effects Of Mercury On Water
Mercury never goes away. It just gets moved around, changing from one chemical form to another, with water playing a major role in both the transport and transformation of mercury. Once mercury is released into waterways it can end up just about anywhere. Ocean currents can carry it around the world, it can evaporate into the atmosphere, and be deposited back into the oceans or onto land. Water also plays an essential role in the transformation of metallic mercury into its far more dang…
Mercury study finds safer way for small-scale miners to extract gold
Artisanal or small-scale gold miners frequently use mercury in their gold extraction process. The gold-mercury mix, or amalgam, is then heated, usually over an open flame, to vapourise the mercury and leave behind the purified gold. This a potentially deadly activity, with the miner breathing in mercury fumes and the rest settling on and contaminating the surrounding soil and getting flushed into waterways. In Papua New Guinea (PNG) alone, tens of thousands of people make a living from …
How does Ecocycle collect, transport, store and recycle e-waste?
Ecocycle started life as a specialist recycler of mercury-containing waste – mostly dental waste and fluorescent lighting waste. To ensure safe handling of these hazardous materials we created an Australia-wide logistics network for collecting waste by the cardboard box load up to truckloads. With trucks already on the road it was a simple step to expand our collection to other types of related waste, such as batteries and more bulky e-waste including computers and televisions. Collecti…
How the money raised by waste levies should be spent
Most states and territories in Australia charge levies on waste that goes to landfill. The aim? Less waste to landfill and more to recycling. Naturally, one would expect the money raised by these levies to be used to support recycling, but that isn’t always (or even often) the case. Take Victoria as an example – the 2017 State Budget papers showed the state raised $200 million in waste levies. That could have given a huge boost to recycling, but instead most of the money was spent on timbe…
How do I recycle white goods?
White goods are large electrical items used in the home and yep, you guessed it, they are often white in colour. To be a bit more specific, white goods comprise refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers, ovens and stovetops, microwave ovens and air conditioners. On the one hand, they are attractive objects for recycling because they contain a lot of steel, aluminium and copper that can be extracted and reused. On the other hand, they are often big and heavy and hard to fit into yo…
What can you recycle on a building site?
With much of the construction industry embracing the philosophy of ‘green building’ there’s growing pressure on building site managers to get serious about recycling. More than 90% of construction and demolition waste can be recycled – everything from concrete rubble and steel reinforcing to timber offcuts and bits of PVC pipe – but the diversity of waste can create a bit of a challenge for building site managers who want to maximise their recycling performance. Good news: for several type…
e-waste impact continues to grow
These days you’d be hard pressed to find a business that doesn’t rely on computers, printers and mobile phones. And like any electronic items these either break down or become technologically obsolete, adding to Australia’s (and the world’s) growing mountain of electronic waste. E-waste contains toxic materials, such as lead and mercury, as well as valuable components including gold and steel. The upshot is that recycling e-waste makes sense for both environmental and economic reasons, …
How Australian schools can dispose of and recycle e-waste
The dark side of the glittering screens that school teachers and students rely on is that they eventually fail or become obsolete. They then add to the mountain of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste), much of which ends up being dumped into landfill. Aside from things with screens – computers, tablets, phones, calculators, TVs – schools also depend on fluorescent lighting tubes and compact fluorescent lamps, photocopiers, batteries, power tools, lab equipment and numerous other elect…
How Ecocycle is working closely with Indonesia to tackle mercury recycling
With more than 260 million people, Indonesia is the world’s fourth largest by population. It’s also developing rapidly, and much of its economic activity is illuminated my mercury-containing fluorescent lighting. Indonesia is also home to significant oil and gas extraction industries that generate mercury-bearing waste, and artisanal gold mining remains a major cause of mercury poisoning. Ecocycle, Australia’s most experienced and only fully licensed recycler of mercury, is now working …