Handling E-Waste with care: prevention against e-pollution hazards via the 'Recycle-Reuse-Share-Repair' scheme In Brisbane, Australia

Abstract

Electronic waste appears to be a condition that, despite United Nations warnings about its expansion and the health hazards produced by it, is not being perceived as a threat concerning the protection of the inhabitants of urban environments. Staggering data presented by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2013) indicate that by 2028 181,000 tones or 44 million units of computers and televisions will be thrown away, a fact related to harmful health effects; In particular, materials such as lead, cadmium, chromium and soil contamination generated by chemicals consequently impacting plants, animals and water have been linked to health conditions, especially children’s as stressed by the World Health Organisation (2013). This paper demonstrates ways of minimising the impact of e-waste by educating city residents how and where to responsibly dispose mal/non-functioning electronics as well as how to encourage a pro-sustaining psychology against planned obsolescence via the ‘Recycle-Reuse-Share-Repair’ scheme. The scheme makes available all the drop-off, information, repair, reuse and share facilities of electronic waste and broken or unused electronic goods in Brisbane, which are embedded in a pre-existing digital platform and an Application. The descriptive case study (Yin, 2013) was chosen as the method for the identification and assessment of the e-waste facilities of ‘Recycle-Reuse-Share-Repair’ and a qualitative approach was adopted for the collection of data. Through this scheme it is anticipated that the local community will get motivated to shift from keeping at home or improperly discarding electronics to repair those that can be fixed, share those that are no longer needed and responsibly recycle those that cannot have a second life. To resume, the intention of this research project is to facilitate the harvest of components and materials of faulty and outdated electronics so as to not end up in landfills subsequently causing unnecessary risks for human health.