Potential carbon benefits of television and computer e-waste recycling in Australia
Potential carbon benefits of television and computer e-waste recycling in Australia
The goal of this project was to quantify an average carbon footprint value for the recycling of a tonne of mixed television and computer waste managed by ANZRP, for inclusion in their annual report. It involved modelling the collection chain throughout inner regional, metropolitan, outer regional and remote regions in Australia right through to resource recovery of the different waste fractions, from plastic and glass through to a variety of metals.
In April 2017, ANZRP released their Annual Report, which provides information about the company’s collection and recycling activities under the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme for the period 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016. The report shows the findings from Lifecycles' carbon footprint calculation, which found that when ANZRP recycles one tonne of e-waste this resulted in a saving of 981 kgCO2e emissions. In 2015/16 this equated to avoiding 23,012 tCO2e emissions (on the basis of 23,458 tonnes of e-waste being recycled by ANZRP).
