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By Sue Lowe, Sydney Morning Herald

SYDNEY, Australia, 28 February 2002   -- : It is a familiar sight on council clean-up days alongside the threadbare sofas and dysfunctional fridges are outmoded personal computers, monitors, printers, televisions and VCRs. Many households are into their second or third generation of computer and, according to Environment Australia, are sending more technology trash to landfills than big business. But under plans still to be made public by the Office of Western Sydney, the state's first technology reprocessing plant could soon be established. Up to $40 million of private investment has been suggested. A report commissioned by Environment Australia late last year said 926,500 computers were dumped in landfills in 2001, compared to 282,000 sent for recycling. By 2006, 1.6 million computers will be going to landfills, while 494,000 will be recycled. Another 5.3 million redundant personal computers will by then be stuffed at the back of garages and warehouses until someone works out what to do with them. Even with recycled computer waste, more accountability is needed. A report released in Silicon Valley this week names Australia as one of five countries sending between 50 per cent and 80 per cent of retrieved computer components to Asia. The report, Exporting Harm: The Techno-Trashing of Asia, says the toxic waste is often burned in fields or left to leach poisonous materials such as lead, mercury and cadmium into water supplies. The European Union is considering legislation that forces computer manufacturers to take back their products for recycling. The Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association began a TV and VCR "take back" trial last October. Consumers in five Melbourne suburbs can either drop off old sets at a recycling centre or leave them with the retailer when they buy new. More than 1500 TVs have been collected in five months, and drop-off rates are increasing. The Office of Western Sydney has confirmed that it is looking at the feasibility of a reprocessing plant but was not ready to give more details.

A task force is working with government agencies and universities to establish whether there will be enough scrap available to make it viable. The centre would need 5000 tonnes a year. "It's not a question of whether [Australia] can support its own reprocessing industry we have to do it," said the chief executive of Resource NSW, Tim Rogers. "It's a question of how many [plants we can support]."

Closer to fruition is a Resource NSW plan to set up a drive-through recycling centre in Werrington. The centre would rely on residents taking redundant electronic items to the centre and dumping them in the appropriate bin.