Articles
TechCollect can solve e-waste problems for the hospitality industry Tim Fullerton I TechCollect
14 April 2014, Melbourne AUSTRALIA – Electronic waste (e-waste) recycling could be made much easier for companies in the hospitality industry as TechCollect, Australia’s only not-for-profit e-waste collection and recycling service, increases its focus on the large volumes of computer and IT waste generated by the corporate world.
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echCollect is a free national e-waste collection and recycling service funded by over 60 of Australia’s leading technology companies dedicated to responsible recycling, including Toshiba, Lenovo, Fuji Xerox, Panasonic, Epson, Dell, HP and many others. TechCollect is committed to setting the highest Australian standard for responsible recycling of e-waste as the only Government approved, industry backed, not-for-profit recycling service under the National Computer and Television Recycling Scheme (NTCRS). TechCollect’s focus on the hospitality industry is part of its larger business to business (B2B) campaign to encourage corporates to take stock of their unwanted IT in 2014. “We’ve already established a strong service to households and small businesses over the last two years, but in 2014 sectors like the hospitality industry, generating high volumes of IT e-waste, are going to get special attention – they have a big problem knowing how to safely and efficiently dispose of their unwanted IT, and we have a great solution,” says Carmel Dollisson, CEO of TechCollect.
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The e-waste collected by TechCollect is manually disassembled into component parts and then further processed back to raw commodities for use in the manufacture of new goods. Of the high volumes of e-waste it collected in 2013 – over 16,000 tonnes in total –TechCollect recovered more than 90% of raw materials in this way. The process is many times more efficient that refining or mining new commodities, is a better environmental outcome and ensures product does not end up in landfill. These results have contributed to the overall success of the NTCRS, which combines government regulation with industry action to take responsibility for safe recycling of e-waste. The scheme is funded and run by industry and regulated by the Australian Government to provide householders and small business access to free e-waste recycling services.