As electronic goods and appliances get cheaper, they also seem to fail faster. And while they might be cheaper to buy, there is a hidden cost: repairs are often not cost effective (because component-level repairs aren’t done anymore), and so we end up buying whole new items every two or three years.

More than the hit to the hip-pocket, what disturbs me is the environmental cost. Looking at the DVD player that no longer works and which is not worth repairing, I can’t help but see the manufacturing effort that went into making this unit, as well as the heavy metals and plastics that will most likely end up in landfill.

I know that in some parts of the world it is now possible to recycle such items, but searching for a similar facility in Australia proved fruitless.

In February 2005 Collex announced that it would be starting an electronics recycling facility in Australia http://www.collex.com.au/about_us/collex_news/collex_news_1.cfm. Encouraged by this news, I called them. After being transferred around a few desks in response to my enquiry, I reached someone who gave me the number of the nearest facility who would accept my goods. I rang them, and they said: “No, we don’t recycle. We just crush the equipment and it goes into landfill”.

Beyond Collex, I could only find a couple of firms, who, for a charge, would remove IT equipment from businesses, and recycle the components in a secure and environmentally friendly way.

Consumers need an easy way to recycle environmentally costly and damaging items such as electronic goods and batteries, and business and government need to do more to provide these services. While our school children receive education on the environment and sustainability, those who can actually do something about the problem seem not to have learned any lessons yet.

Recycling is not just about newspapers and bottles anymore.