recycling - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• E-waste recycling in Australia needs improvement, says study

  Australia is a big generator of e-waste per capita, and the systems in place to recycle technology are lacking compared to schemes in Japan, Finland and Germany, according to a new report.

• The hidden environmental cost of the Internet of Things

  Analyst firm Gartner is forecasting that the IoT will encompass some 30 billion connected devices by 2020. And while networking vendor Cisco has pegged the IoT's value at $14.4 trillion between 2013 and 2022, questions are being asked over its potential environment cost.

• Standards Australia unwraps e-waste standard for ANZ

  A new standard has been published for safe and environmentally sound handling of electronic waste in Australia and New Zealand.

• WA Government hand-outs focus on e-waste

  The Western Australian State Government will provide $400,000 in funding to 12 metropolitan waste depots and regional councils in an effort to improve collection and recycling of electronic waste.

• Uganda reverses PC recycling policy as Kenya imposes ban

  While Uganda is planning to reverse its ban on imports of used computers, Kenya is joining Zambia in prohibiting what authorities allege are old PCs being dumped on their markets by developed countries.

• Local councils split on e-waste curb-side collection bans

  Local councils across Australia are split on whether to ban curb-side collection of electronic waste to keep toxic chemicals out of landfill two months after the Federal Government announced a national recycling scheme.

• Recycling scheme a waste without expansion

  The Federal Government will need to create more than 1000 electronic-waste collection points — some 800 more than currently planned — to meet its 2020 recycling targets.

• TVs and computers to be targeted in e-waste recycling program

  Computers and televisions will be the first products regulated as part of a national recycling scheme endorsed by state and federal environment ministers. Federal environment minister, Peter Garrett said in a statement that the new "industry-run national collection and recycling scheme" will be up and running in or before 2011.

• E-waste recycling plant eyes CRT expansion

  As many as 700,000 CRT monitors could be recycled every year if a new e-waste processing plant in Sydney gets the go-head for an expansion into televisions and computer monitors.

• Samsung Reclaim: nice idea, but who recycles phones?

  Sprint's US launch of the new Samsung Reclaim, an environmentally friendly <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/125397/top_10_cell_phones.html">smartphone</a> that's 80-percent recyclable, is getting plenty of media buzz. And while the Reclaim is a step in the right direction, there's a less impressive statistic you should know about: Just 1 out of 10 mobile phones is recycled.

• Panasonic aims laser at TV recycling

  Panasonic has a new weapon in its recycling arsenal for dealing with cathode ray tubes from old televisions: a powerful laser that can quickly weaken the thick glass and enable a three-fold increase in processing speed.

• Dell and HP take knocks in India over recycling programs

  Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) were criticized by Greenpeace for not implementing their product recycling services properly in India.

• Used PCs still being dumped despite high demand

  More used computers could be reused; only 44 percent of computers entering the secondary market end up in the hands of a new owner, despite the fact that worldwide demand for such computers is greater than supply, according to a Gartner report.