Individuals willing to pay for e-waste

Individuals would pay as much as $50 per item to improve the current rate of recycling for old computer and television products, a new study from the Environment Protection and Heritage Council has found.

Respondents also said they would pay a premium of $3.55 per item for a “kerbside collection”, instead of dropping the equipment at a designated collection point.

The research, which was conducted by URS, collected information from 2,000 questionnaires completed this year. It also showed that respondents would pay between $18 and $27 an item in order to increase the rate or recycling to 90%.

As companies and individuals increase the rate at which they turnover technology used in homes and businesses, the amount of e-waste is concerning industry analysts.

A separate study from PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that 31.7 million televisions, computers and products including monitors and speakers were sold in 2007-08, but 16.8 million units reached the end of their lifecycles during the same time.