Australian and New Zealand Recycling Platform (ANZRP) release their annual report

ANZRP's Annual Report 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.

ANZRP engaged Lifecycles to calculate the average carbon footprint value for the recycling of one tonne of mixed television and computer waste using the life cycle assessment methodology. 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 emissions associated with ANZRP's 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.

It was 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). Lifecycles found that the CO2 burden associated with collecting, recycling and processing the e-waste is entirely offset by the benefits associated with avoiding the production of virgin materials: in particular, iron, aluminium, copper and platinum group metals. This carbon footprint will provide a baseline for improvement and an opportunity to engage with our Members and other stakeholders on improving environmental performance.