Electronic devices such as television and computers are becoming increasingly common throughout Australia. It is estimated that the stock of electronic items in Australia amounts to 18million televisions and 24 million computers. Australian households have accumulated a large number of television and computers - almost seven items per household.

The vast majority of households have both a television and a computer, and are likely ti buy another of each within the next five years. Disposals are 1.5 million and 2 million respectively each year. Not all replaced items go directly to landfill with many being given away; however this can be considered as a transitional step and a simple timing difference, as ultimately ant item given away (or stored) will have to be disposed of.

There is widespread concern within the community over the appropriate disposal of unwanted electronic equipment, commonly referred to as e-waste. These concerns, which also exist in other countries relate to :
• The volume of these items in landfill and resultant unnecessary use of landfill space;
• The loss of scarce resources embodied in the items; and
• The risks to human health and the environment because of the potential hazardous nature of e-waste

E-waste can be recycled, with a high proportion of the materials able to be recovered. However, there are a number of issues associated with the collection and recycling of such wastes which manifest themselves in a very small proportion being recycling (estimated at 1 percent, as far as household e-waste is concerned). A major reason is that the value of he recovered materials is less than the cost of collecting and processing e-waste. Thus there is very little incentive for private companies to offer recycling services.

Under the Australian Constitution, responsibility for managing wastes, including e-wastes, rests largely with the States and Territories. Local governments are active providers of waste management services within the policy and the regulatory frameworks established by their respective State/Territory. The role of the commonwealth Government is limited to international arrangements affecting waste management and to facilitating a coordinated approach by the states and territories towards the management of waste, including the meeting of best practice regulation requirements of COAG;

From an international perspective, Australia is signatory to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of hazardous components of televisions and computers are classified as hazardous, e-waste cannot be exported from Australia without a permit.

Recycling process
Whilst the recycling of e-waste is generally seen as desirable by consumers, there are a number of barriers that have impacted on the establishment of a comprehensive recycling system to date. These include difficulties in the separation of electronic components and in establishing broad-scale collection systems. Combined, these difficulties mean that the recycling of e-waste is generally no of the commercial viability.
Many of the components that can be recycled from e-waste have a very low resale value which does not cover the cost involved in collecting and processing the item

Why is E-waste issue?
Because e-waste is hard to recycle or reuse and is extremely polluting to the environment.
Separation of useful electrical components is hard and the resale of the recycled components reach a very low resale value, which does not cover the cost of collecting and processing.
Many private companies are reluctant to start recycling the e-waste in land fills despite the high number of recyclable components.
It also uses a lot of valuable land fill space which creates problems as it cannot degrade properly and pollutes nearby areas and fills up space that could be used for more organic and biodegradable waste.