Local councils could do more on e-waste
I was having a chin wag with someone the other day about e-waste, and how there are many organisations that produce vast quantities of it at a time. One such example is local councils, which from time to time need to get rid of tons of old computers and other equipment.
The trouble is, that some councils are more worried about saving a few rate payer bucks than doing the right thing. Recently officials from Toowoomba council were alleged to have said, in reference to the cost of having e-waste removed for recycling, that it was a lot cheaper just to dump it all in landfill.
I haven’t had a response back from the state and federal ministers I wrote to a little while back. Today I’m writing to the Mayor’s of Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Logan and the CEO of the Gold Coast council. I’m asking them to take a leadership role in e-waste, ensure they offer collection points for it and perhaps go as far as giving grants to small recycling businesses to build local recycling infrastructure.
Here’s hoping they take the lead on the issue, and we can get the Fed’s to jump in and help too. With the massive budget surplus we should end up with after they cut spending and raise the odd tax here and there, we should be able to fund, among other things, e-waste recycling.