E-Stewardship in Australia

In the last 10 years, the rate of e-waste generated each year by Australians has more than doubled. We all have a part to play in taking responsibility for the waste we produce.

E-stewardship means improving the environmentally sound management of electrical and electronic products throughout their life.

It is the shared responsibility of designers, manufacturers, importers, retailers, consumers, recyclers and governments. The end result? Less waste and more recovery of valuable resources.

Consumer electronics stewardship discussion paper submissions

Submissions to the Discussion Paper are now closed. The department would like to thank everyone who provided a submission to the Stewardship for Consumer and Other Electrical and Electronic Products Discussion Paper.

Non-confidential submissions are now available.

Please email further enquiries to writ@awe.gov.au

E-Product Stewardship in Australia Report

The model below was commissioned by the department to establish the quantitative foundation to inform policy development for electrical and electronic product stewardship and waste.

The model contains detailed breakdowns of the materials in different product categories to estimate the value of materials: both in terms of dollars and embodied greenhouse gas emissions.

The model is built to be iteratively improved over time, and this second iteration – version 1.1 – maintains the model as a sound foundation for future policy development.

Version 1.1 was developed by Iceni and Lifecycles. Updates included:

adjusting the classification of certain e-products (remapping Harmonised System and United Nations University Key codes)
determining the proportion of e-products in ‘mixed’ product codes for mowers and toys
correcting material fraction data entry
refining material breakdowns for printed circuit boards.

Changes from Version 1.0 to Version 1.1 are outlined in the technical report ‘Updates to Australia’s E-Stewardship Model’.