The Afterlife (for electronics)

If your TV or computer has come to the end of its life, it will soon be super-easy to recycle it with a new National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme.

The Squeeze: In Australia, only about 17% of TVs and computers are currently recycled.

We have an insatiable appetite for new TVs and computers, with 3 million TVs alone entering the Australian market each year. Sending most of this technology to landfill wastes valuable resources and is very polluting to the environment. 

Do the right thing and recycle! Recycling televisions and computers not only reduces waste and pollution, but it also allows the valuable parts such as gold, copper, aluminium and glass to be recovered and re-used. And now with the new national, (industry-funded) scheme there is no excuse not to.

The Scheme will provide collection points where you can drop off your televisions, computers, printers and computer products (including keyboards, mice and hard drives) to be recycled for free. It has been launched in Canberra, and it will be rolled out across the whole of Australia by the end of 2013. (While you are waiting for it to reach you, store your goods out of the weather).

Living Lime: Some creative people have turned their old computer monitors and televisions into fish tanks! There are plenty of online guides to help anyone do this. See this guide for computer monitors (and take a look at these Macaquariums!) And see this guide to creating a fish tank from an old TV.

To squeeze some more green out of your day: Don’t dispose of TVs and computers that are still in working order - extend their life and sell them, give them away through Freecycle or Ziilch, or give them to a local charity.
 

By Anna Minns

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