Waste and recycling

A comprehensive baseline analysis of Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) statistics specific to the e-waste recycling industry within Australia, including collection, storage, handling, transport and treatment/processing

Caple and Associates Pty Limited, 2011

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About the report

This report has been developed by Caple and Associates Pty Ltd. The report presents aggregated data from the e-waste recycling industry on reported occupational health and safety incidents and Workers' Compensation Claims. Caple and Associates consulted 15 companies as a representative group which were nationally based, had either multiple sites operating or undertook multiple activities in the recycling chain, were ISO 14001 certified, and had been recycling e-waste for at least three years.

Caple reported that the generic OHS policies used by e-waste recycling sites visited were consistent with medium sized employers in the manufacturing sector in Australia. However, Caple noted that there is no standardised format in Australia for reporting e-waste recycling incidents and the language used to describe the types of incidents varied considerably between sites. The report recommends a Workplace Industry Code (WIC) for the e-waste sector be considered to enable national monitoring of OHS performance. Caple also recommended that data collection of OHS incidents and Workers Compensation Claims be standardised against hours worked or tonnage produced.

The study was commissioned by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities to provide input to the development of a national television and computer recycling scheme. The views expressed in the report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government or the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities or the Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water.

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