Friday 21 September, 2012
The Tamworth region is expected to have its first electronic waste (e-waste) recycling centre in the next few months after Tamworth Regional Council and JOBLINKplus finalised an agreement to provide the service.
Tamworth Regional Council signed an agreement with JOBLINKplus earlier this month. The service will be opened at a site in Taminda in the coming months.
In March this year, Council decided to pursue an agreement with JOBLINKplus after it considered expressions of interest from three companies.
Council endorsed a recommendation to pursue the agreement with JOBLINKplus for a term of up to eight years. For the first 12 months of the agreement Council will allow JOBLINKplus to dispose residual waste from their e-waste recycling at one of its landfill sites free of charge.
The disposal of residual waste from the e-waste recycling facility will be evaluated at the end of the first year and the terms renegotiated if the financial implication for Council proves to be significantly greater than those outlined in the expression of interest.
Tamworth Regional Council Waste Services Manager Jon Beckett said the new service will result in new local employment opportunities and positive environmental outcomes.
'Increasing numbers of computers, office equipment and audio-visual electrical items are being discarded locally and Council wanted to develop a cost effective way of dealing with it,’ he said.
‘This agreement with JOBLINKplus has many benefits for all concerned – it will use the discarded electronic goods as a vehicle for local skills training and employment in a process which recover and recycle components of e-waste.
‘Council will be able to reduce the volume of broken or discarded items deposited in the landfill, thereby saving landfill space, expense and operator time.’
Under the agreement with JOBLINKplus, Council will collect computers, keyboards, televisions and all peripheral hardware it removes from waste taken directly to its Forest Road Landfill. The items will be loaded into bulk shipping containers and taken to the JOBLINKplus e-waste recycling facility where they will be dismantled and recycled.