Leading Sydney recycler WSN Environmental Solutions and Bankstown City Council have welcomed the success of the free E-waste Collection Service trial running over two weeks from Saturday 23 February to Sunday 9 March. In the first weekend alone, Bankstown residents dropped off 11 tonnes of electrical equipment, showing a willingness to embrace this new service. They handed in a broad range of items from computers and office equipment, to household appliances, televisions and power tools.
“To receive 11 tonnes over the first weekend is a fantastic result that has exceeded our expectations,” said WSN Environmental Solutions’ CEO, Ken Kanofski. “This response not only demonstrates that Bankstown residents care about their environment, it also highlights the need for a national approach to recycling computers and electrical equipment, involving government and manufacturers.”
Mayor of Bankstown, Councillor Tania Mihailuk, was equally delighted at the first weekend’s results, saying how pleased she was with the impact this recycling message had achieved.
“For Council, our primary aim was to make residents aware that electrical appliances cannot be placed in either the regular household waste or recycling bins, but instead needed to be disposed of at a specialist recycling centre,” Councillor Mihailuk said. “Last weekend’s results appear to indicate that our residents understand and support this.”
Ken Kanofski said WSN wishes to establish Sydney’s first permanent drop off service for a broad range of e-waste, but this needed support from manufacturers and governments.
“Now is the time for governments and manufacturers to end their stand off over the issue of extended producer responsibility,” he said. “We have seen over the weekend that residents clearly want to recycle their old electrical items, so a coordinated approach is long overdue.”
