Have you ever looked at your old mobile phone sitting on a book shelf or in a drawer and wondered ‘what do I do with this’? Well, you are not alone. It’s a waste that so many people are hoarding for various reasons.
E-waste has become one of the fastest growing waste streams around the world, three times faster than any other waste in Australia.
There are valuable metals inside e-waste that can be retrieved and reused.
For a country like Korea where resources are scarce, fast growing e-waste has potential to be a mine from which they can secure a constant supply of those metals, explains Jeong-Soo Sohn, director of Mineral Resources Research Division at KIGAM.
So it is not surprising that Korea is one of the most advanced countries in the world when it comes to e-waste recycling.
But what about Australia, one of the most resource-rich countries in the world?
Professor Damien Giurco from University of Technology Sydney, believes that Australia should look beyond the traditional mining and be part of the solution to the growing waste issue.
