AUSTRALIA is likely to introduce new charges on imported electronic equipment next year to cover the cost of recycling.
The electronics industry has urged state and federal environment departments to introduce government regulation on recycling and disposal of e-waste.
Industry sources told The Sunday Canberra Times that the most effective form of regulation would be extended product responsibility that would place the onus of recycling on the manufacturer or importer. One source suggested the added cost of the charge would probably be about 2per cent for those that had not already put in place a recycling program.
Fuji Xerox Australia, senior executive Ramsay Moodie said the company had adopted a program of recycling and would back government regulation to force maverick importers from getting a ''free-ride by ignoring their environmental responsibilities''.
Fuji Xerox uses two recycling centres, one in Sydney and the other in Thailand where it claims it is able to recycle more than 99 per cent of the waste.
E-waste is one of the fast growing areas of industrial waste and computers and other electronic equipment frequently contain a range of toxic materials, including lead. Mr Moodie said most producers had dramatically reduced levels of toxic material in recent years, and it was far better to build a sustainable industry rather than add to landfill hazards.
Moodie said although Fuji Xerox was using the Thailand facility for some of its recycling, in a few years all recycling was likely to take place in Australia to reduce ''its carbon footprint''.
Environmental campaigner Fraser Brindley, of Environment Victoria, said he was concerned about the use of Asian countries for the recycling and disposal of toxic substances. ''I know of cases where used electrical cable has been sent to Asia and the plastic has been simply burnt-off to get to the copper inside. It would certainly not be allowed in Australia.''
Mr Brindley said e-waste was the fastest growing segment of industrial waste and estimates suggested 50 million tonnes of e-waste were produced annually.
The issue of e-waste is being actively considered by Environment Minister Peter Garrett with a meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (which consists of state and federal environment ministers) issuing a statement earlier this month recognising community and industry concern over the recycling of televisions and computers.
''If 75 per cent of the 1.5 million televisions that are discarded annually were recycled, this would amount to a national saving of approximately 23,000t of CO2 equivalents, 520ML of water, 400,000 gigajoules of energy and 160,000 cubic metres of landfill space. It is likely that computer recycling would generate similar or even greater benefits,'' the council said.
The council has initiated an inquiry with the intention of taking a decision on the issue next year. ''A key aim of this work is to establish whether the problems caused by end-of-life televisions and computers are significant enough to justify government intervention in the market and if so, to find the most efficient and effective approach to achieve this.''
The growth of e-waste has fostered an international trade in it. Fuji Xerox said it used plants in Thailand because they achieved recycling rates of 99.2 per cent. It has been exporting since receiving its first permit from the environment department in 2005.
Mr Moodie said before Fuji Xerox received its export permit there was an extensive investigation, including an analysis by 15 independent experts of shipping procedures and the operation of the Thai operation.
In 2006-07 the company shipped 1300 tonnes of e-waste which was increased to 1500 tonnes in 2007-08. Two weeks ago it received a new permit for up to 120 shipments and 2500 tonnes of waste.
Industry estimates suggest Australia produces between 120,000 tonnes and 140,000 tonnes of e-waste a year of which most is dumped in landfill. Australia has many companies specialising in recycling but they mainly use manual recovery methods which according to the industry limits recycling recovery rates to about 80 to 85 per cent.
The first fully-automated e-waste recycling plant is being opened by Mr Garrett in Sydney on Wednesday. The Sims Metal recycling plant will have the capacity to handle up to 20,000 tonnes a year with recovery rates well over 90 per cent.