E-waste infrastructure grants
The Victorian Government banned the disposal of e-waste to landfill on 1 July 2019.
E-waste is growing three times faster than general waste in Australia. This stream of waste contains hazardous materials which can harm the environment and human health. It also contains valuable materials such as copper, silver, gold and aluminium which are scarce and worth recovering.
We are facilitating $15 million of funding via two rounds of the E-waste Infrastructure Grants that aim to:
- provide support to build the capacity and capability of those managing e-waste
- ensure that collection, storage and reprocessing of e-waste is conducted to a high standard.
Both rounds are now closed.
Round two: Safely managing Victoria’s e-waste
With the development of Victoria’s E-waste Collection Network (VECN), there has been an increased need to build reprocessing capacity and capability to safely manage the growing volumes of Victoria’s e-waste.
Round two prioritises building e-waste reprocessing capacity and addressing remaining gaps in the VECN. It comprises two streams of grants:
- Reprocessing Grants
- Collection and Storage Grants
In this round, 11 organisations were awarded $1.7 million in total.
Round two closed on 30 March 2020 and recipients were announced in October 2020.
Grant recipients – Reprocessing Grants
EWastec Pty Ltd
Ewastec Pty Ltd will invest in new equipment to manage the increasing volume of mixed e-waste feedstock for recycling.
Funding: $68,000
Resource Pty Ltd
Resource Pty Lt will invest in a new reprocessing plant and will develop a solution to process the increasing volume of e-waste.
Funding: $500,000
Scipher Technologies Pty Ltd
Scipher Technologies Pty Ltd will invest in a new multi-sensor sorting system and conveying tracks.
Funding: $395,000
WeCollect Pty Ltd
We Collect Pty Ltd will invest in a new plastics extrusion plant to recycle e-waste plastics into value-added landscaping products.
Funding: $302,432
Grant recipients – Collection and Storage Grants
EWastec Pty Ltd
Ewastec Pty Ltd will invest in three new shelters to manage increasing volumes of mixed e-waste feedstock for reprocessing.
Funding: $58,528
Loddon Shire Council
Loddon Shire Council will construct a shed in line with AS/NZS 5377:2013 for the collection and storage of e-waste materials at Pyramid Hill landfill.
Funding: $25,000
Loddon Shire Council
Loddon Shire Council will construct a shed in line with AS/NZS 5377:2013 for the collection and storage of e-waste materials at Wedderburn transfer station.
Funding: $25,000
Melbourne City Council
Melbourne City Council will create three new e-waste drop-off points for residents and small businesses disposing small e-waste items.
Funding: $10,000
South Gippsland Shire Council
South Gippsland Shire Council will provide semi-permanent infrastructure for the collection and storage of e-waste.
Funding: $42,040
Southern Grampians Shire Council
Southern Grampians Shire Council will invest in seven e-waste drop-off points, so that residents living in northern, eastern and western suburbs of the area can have safe and reasonable access to them.
Funding: $16,705
Wellington Shire Council
Wellington Shire Council will upgrade two e-waste drop-off points, so that residents can have safe and reasonable access to them.
Funding: $19,603
Round one: Upgrading the e-waste collection network
This round committed to upgrading Victoria’s E-waste Collection Network (VECN). Funding delivered 123 upgrades to local government owned transfer stations and resource recovery centres and 50 e-waste hubs across Victoria.
An independent review of round one was conducted and found:
- on completion of round one upgrades, over 98% of communities in both metropolitan and regional Victoria will have reasonable access (30-minute drive time) to a safe e-waste disposal point
- to assess the coverage of the VECN, this review provided an analysis of visible network gaps, identifying areas of Victoria that are servicing large populations and therefore may have constrained capacity at drop-off sites
- there are still geographical gaps in the e-waste collection network. These gaps included eastern suburbs of Melbourne and Warrnambool and that in these locations there is a high concentration of population being serviced by fewer sites.