The Household Hazardous Waste Depot located at Dry Creek does not accept asbestos so you will be unable to take it there.  There is an Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Guideline ‘Waste Containing Asbestos’ (EPA 414/07) which offers advice for the safe handling and disposal of asbestos materials in compliance with licensing requirements of the EPA. The guideline and further information about handling asbestos can be found on the EPA website. The guideline includes a list of sites that accept asbestos for disposal.

Householders have several options:

• Visit any Mitre 10 store or True Value Hardware store Mitre 10 and True Value Hardware now take a wide variety of household lights including halogen, incandescent and fluorescent globes.
• Visit the Hazardous Household Waste Depot at the corner of Magazine Road and Henschke Street, Dry Creek. It is open on the first Tuesday of every month from 9am - 12 noon.
• Take the tubes and globes to a free Zero Waste SA/Local Council household hazardous waste collection. Licensed professional waste management contractors set up temporary collection points in metropolitan and country areas of the State. Or telephone Zero Waste SA on 8204 1947.
• Take the tubes to DeLights at 37 Anzac Highway, Ashford or Ikea at 397 Sir Donald Bradman Drive, Adelaide Airport.
• Householders are advised not to place compact fluorescent globes or other fluorescent tubes in their kerbside recycling bin. These items need to be recycled by a company with a specific process. The mercury powder contained in them is a significant contamination concern for the broader recycling industry.

There are fee-for-service options available for commercial and industrial users to ensure their fluoro tubes and globes are diverted from landfill and recycled such as CMA Eco Cycle, Lamp Recyclers, Chemsal, Sylvania and SITA.

CMA Eco Cycle has programs in place with Adelaide City Council, City of Mt Gambier, City of Tea Tree Gully, City of Norwood, Payneham & St Peters, City of Marion, City of Prospect, Onkaparinga Council, Adelaide Hills Council, City of Whyalla, City of West Torrens, The Barossa Council and Alexandrina Council. In some case the programs are for residents but for others it is for lighting waste from the council’s facilities.

The short term nature of the potential exposure (particularly after effective clean-up of broken CFL material) does not constitute a significant health risk to exposed adults (including pregnant women) or children.

Some members of the public have expressed concerns about the release of mercury from broken CFLs. The concentration of mercury vapour released by a broken CFL, when measured directly above the broken lamp, can for a brief amount of time exceed international guidelines for chronic exposure in ambient (outdoor) air. The term 'chronic' implies that the exposure is continuous over an extended period i.e. years. It is not appropriate to use these chronic guideline values when assessing possible risk from short term exposure to mercury from CFLs. A broken CFL can provide amounts of elemental mercury vapour which could reach a comparable value to that from dental amalgam fillings in adults, especially if not cleaned up. While the levels of exposure are similar, the timeframe for exposure arising from a broken CFL is likely to be much shorter.

However, following these simple and straightforward clean up and disposal instructions as a cautionary approach will further reduce risk:

• Open nearby windows and doors to allow the room to ventilate for 15 minutes before cleaning up the broken lamp. Do not leave on any air conditioning or heating equipment which could recirculate mercury vapours back into the room.
• Do not use a vacuum cleaner or broom on hard surfaces because this can spread the contents of the lamp and contaminate the cleaner. Instead scoop up broken material (e.g. using stiff paper or cardboard), if possible into a glass container which can be sealed with a metal lid.
• Use disposable rubber gloves rather than bare hands.
• Use a disposable brush to carefully sweep up the pieces.
• Use sticky tape and/or a damp cloth to wipe up any remaining glass fragments and/or powders.
• On carpets or fabrics, carefully remove as much glass and/or powdered material using a scoop and sticky tape; if vacuuming of the surface is needed to remove residual material, ensure that the vacuum bag is discarded or the canister is wiped thoroughly clean.
• Dispose of cleanup equipment (i.e. gloves, brush, damp paper) and sealed containers containing pieces of the broken lamp in your outside rubbish bin - never in your recycling bin.
• While not all of the recommended cleanup and disposal equipment described above may be available (particularly a suitably sealed glass container), it is important to emphasise that the transfer of the broken CFL and clean-up materials to an outside rubbish bin (preferably sealed) as soon as possible is the most effective way of reducing potential contamination of the indoor environment.

See the Australian Government's webpage on CFLs for more information.

Please refer to the garden organics fact sheet and visit the Recycle Right pages on our website. Just remember when it comes to the green organics bin 'If it didn't grow, then it doesn't go'.

There are several options for householders to recycle batteries in South Australia:

• Battery World stores throughout South Australia take most batteries, phone 13 17 60.
• Recycle My Battery shows locations around Australia for lead acid batteries (the kind used in cars, motorcycles and boats).
• Mobile phone batteries - check out Mobile Muster for your nearest drop off point.
• You can also view our list of recycling locations.

Firstly, it depends on what you mean by 'outdated' - some equipment which still works OK or is below the latest specs can still be used by charity organisations. One charitable organisation in particular that will take your unwanted electronic goods is West Works at 95 Womma Road, Elizabeth West or contact telephone 8209 5707.

You could also offer your computer on the give away site like Freally at or Freecycle.

Make sure you describe your item exactly (working or not working - some people are still keen to take the non-working items and fix them), and give your location/suburb.

Organisations that will take your old computer equipment and refurbish it for use by schools and charities include:

• Aspitech
• Australian Computer Recycling
• ITShare SA

If your electronic equipment is beyond help, take a look at E-Cycle Recovery's website. You can also search for e-waste recyclers near you on our recycling locations web page.

E-cycle Recovery has established a service offering computer recycling with genuine environmental outcomes. E-cycle Recovery takes all the 'dead' computers and e-waste, and disassembles it into component parts, with glass, plastics, metal etc going off to various reprocessors. The result is a 97% recovery rate of material going to landfill. There is a fee involved to drop off your computer to ensure this recovery rate.

E-waste collections

Zero Waste SA are working with local councils to provide e-waste collections. You can view our list of council e-waste collections to see if your council is involved.

A: Before sending your computer off to be recycled be sure to erase all sensitive data. Do a low level format to be certain the data is not going to be retrievable by anyone. You can download free tools from your PC manufacturer to do this, here are some handy results from Google for PC users. If you are an Apple Macinstosh user then simply boot off the OSX installer disks and choose 'Zero All Data' from the Disk Utility on the disk.

A: The recycling of electronic goods does cost money. In order to disassemble the product into various material types: plastics; metal casings; cathode ray tube; circuit boards to facilitate recycling requires a lot of manual handling and some machine processing. The benefit is that the materials are then recycled and the resources and energy used in the production of the electronic item is effectively recovered and not lost. Often the price received by the recycler when selling the separated materials does not cover the costs of disassembly and this is why recyclers such as E-Cycle Recovery have to charge for receiving your e-waste.   

Landfill is certainly a less expensive option but does not enable the valuable resources contained in the product to be recovered.  If the equipment is still operational you may be able to give it to a second hand electronics dealer (check the Yellow Pages) or see the information about e-waste recycling.

The most expensive household item to recycle is a television at $15.00 so for it to cost over $100.00 there must be a few items requiring recycling.

I am unable to comment on the specifics of your council rate notice. It would appear that your council has separated out the waste component of your overall rates. This cost would normally reflect the fee for waste related services such as kerbside collection of waste, recyclables and green waste and may also include hard waste collection costs; tip vouchers and other waste related services. You should check with your council regarding what services are covered by the $120.00.

Many councils are now running e-waste recycling days in conjunction with Zero Waste SA. Visit this page for more information, it lists the councils involved and the details of their proposed e-waste collection. 

Householders have several options:

• Visit any Mitre 10 store or True Value Hardware store Mitre 10 and True Value Hardware now take a wide variety of household lights including halogen, incandescent and fluorescent globes.
• Visit the Hazardous Household Waste Depot at the corner of Magazine Road and Henschke Street, Dry Creek. It is open on the first Tuesday of every month from 9am - 12 noon.
• Take the tubes and globes to a free Zero Waste SA/Local Council household hazardous waste collection. Licensed professional waste management contractors set up temporary collection points in metropolitan and country areas of the State. Or telephone Zero Waste SA on 8204 1947.
• Take the tubes to DeLights at 37 Anzac Highway, Ashford or Ikea at 397 Sir Donald Bradman Drive, Adelaide Airport.
• Householders are advised not to place compact fluorescent globes or other fluorescent tubes in their kerbside recycling bin. These items need to be recycled by a company with a specific process. The mercury powder contained in them is a significant contamination concern for the broader recycling industry.

There are fee-for-service options available for commercial and industrial users to ensure their fluoro tubes and globes are diverted from landfill and recycled such as CMA Eco Cycle, Lamp Recyclers, Chemsal, Sylvania and SITA.

CMA Eco Cycle has programs in place with Adelaide City Council, City of Mt Gambier, City of Tea Tree Gully, City of Norwood, Payneham & St Peters, City of Marion, City of Prospect, Onkaparinga Council, Adelaide Hills Council, City of Whyalla, City of West Torrens, The Barossa Council and Alexandrina Council. In some case the programs are for residents but for others it is for lighting waste from the council’s facilities.

The short term nature of the potential exposure (particularly after effective clean-up of broken CFL material) does not constitute a significant health risk to exposed adults (including pregnant women) or children.

Some members of the public have expressed concerns about the release of mercury from broken CFLs. The concentration of mercury vapour released by a broken CFL, when measured directly above the broken lamp, can for a brief amount of time exceed international guidelines for chronic exposure in ambient (outdoor) air. The term 'chronic' implies that the exposure is continuous over an extended period i.e. years. It is not appropriate to use these chronic guideline values when assessing possible risk from short term exposure to mercury from CFLs. A broken CFL can provide amounts of elemental mercury vapour which could reach a comparable value to that from dental amalgam fillings in adults, especially if not cleaned up. While the levels of exposure are similar, the timeframe for exposure arising from a broken CFL is likely to be much shorter.

However, following these simple and straightforward clean up and disposal instructions as a cautionary approach will further reduce risk:

• Open nearby windows and doors to allow the room to ventilate for 15 minutes before cleaning up the broken lamp. Do not leave on any air conditioning or heating equipment which could recirculate mercury vapours back into the room.
• Do not use a vacuum cleaner or broom on hard surfaces because this can spread the contents of the lamp and contaminate the cleaner. Instead scoop up broken material (e.g. using stiff paper or cardboard), if possible into a glass container which can be sealed with a metal lid.
• Use disposable rubber gloves rather than bare hands.
• Use a disposable brush to carefully sweep up the pieces.
• Use sticky tape and/or a damp cloth to wipe up any remaining glass fragments and/or powders.
• On carpets or fabrics, carefully remove as much glass and/or powdered material using a scoop and sticky tape; if vacuuming of the surface is needed to remove residual material, ensure that the vacuum bag is discarded or the canister is wiped thoroughly clean.
• Dispose of cleanup equipment (i.e. gloves, brush, damp paper) and sealed containers containing pieces of the broken lamp in your outside rubbish bin - never in your recycling bin.
• While not all of the recommended cleanup and disposal equipment described above may be available (particularly a suitably sealed glass container), it is important to emphasise that the transfer of the broken CFL and clean-up materials to an outside rubbish bin (preferably sealed) as soon as possible is the most effective way of reducing potential contamination of the indoor environment.

See the Australian Government's webpage on CFLs for more information.

Q: My council offers a food waste collection service. What can I put in the benchtop container?
A: The list of what can go into your container is extensive: food scraps, peels, cake, bread crusts, fruit, vegetables, teabags , coffee grounds, meat scraps, bones, seafood (cooked, raw), egg, oyster shells, cheese, yoghurt, takeaway foods, shredded paper, tissues, paper towels, hair.

More importantly, you should be aware of what you can't put in your container. Please don't place these items in the container as they will not break down in the compost:

x Plastic bags/oven bags
x Cling wrap
x Dishcloths/sponges
x Liquids
x Nappies
x Cigarette butts or ash
x Vacuum dust
x Sharps

There are several options for householders to recycle batteries in South Australia:

• Battery World stores throughout South Australia take most batteries, phone 13 17 60.
• Recycle My Battery shows locations around Australia for lead acid batteries (the kind used in cars, motorcycles and boats).
• Mobile phone batteries - check out Mobile Muster for your nearest drop off point.
• You can also view our list of recycling locations.

You can drop off x-rays at Red Cross Centres or Siltech's Adelaide office in Camden Park, 1 Deeds Road, Camden Park, 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday - no fees apply.

If you have x-ray volumes over 20kg, Siltech can arrange an x-ray collection from most areas. To find out more, contact Siltech on 8294 7955.

X-ray films are processed in a refinery to extract the silver. The x-ray films are heated using temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Celsius. The silver is extracted and converted into a more pure silver form. The silver can then be reused for things such as silver solder, jewellery, the silver plating of utensils, electrical components and film manufacture.

Standard film and negatives are not recyclable and should be placed in the red or blue bin.

A: Paper is recyclable and should go in the recycling bin, but once it’s been shredded it can cause problems for machinery at the recycling depot. Small amounts of shredded paper can go in the green organics bin, along with your garden and food waste that goes to commercial composting facilities. Shredded paper is very useful in creating composts and mulches, so where possible place it in the green organics bin. Otherwise, you can put the shredded paper in a large paper bag, old envelope or cardboard box, so it is contained and will not clog the recycling machinery, and then put it into the recycling (yellow lid) bin.

South Australians have several websites they can use to get rid of unwanted items for free: 

• Echo Adelaide
• Freally
• FreeCycle
• Gumtree
• Ziilch

Not only will all these sites will list your goods at no cost, you can hunt for free bargains at the same time.

The Household Hazardous Waste Depot located at Dry Creek does not accept asbestos so you will be unable to take it there.  There is an Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Guideline ‘Waste Containing Asbestos’ (EPA 414/07) which offers advice for the safe handling and disposal of asbestos materials in compliance with licensing requirements of the EPA. The guideline and further information about handling asbestos can be found on the EPA website. The guideline includes a list of sites that accept asbestos for disposal.

A: If a small amount of paint has been stored for a long period of time in a large tin it is likely that the paint will have gone hard. If paint has hardened (no longer liquid) it can be placed in the waste bin with the paint tin lid removed. There are three other options you may like to consider:

1. Zero Waste SA with the assistance of councils undertake free household hazardous waste collections to help dispose of your unwanted chemicals (including paint) in an environmentally safe way. The Zero Waste SA website has details of scheduled collections

2. The Zero Waste SA Household Hazardous Waste Collection Depot located at the corner of Magazine Road and Henschke Street Dry Creek is open the first Tuesday of every month from 9am to 12 noon. For further details visit this page on our website. 

3. Adelaide Waste and Recycling Centre is a transfer depot located at 181 Morphett Road North Plympton. This depot accepts paint from householders at a small charge. They are open from 7am-5pm Monday to Friday and 8am-4pm Saturday and Sunday and Public Holidays. Adelaide waste and Recycling Centre can be contacted on 8295 5790.

If the paint is generated by a business the company is required to contact a waste management company such as Transpacific Technical Services, 8344 0900 or Veolia Environmental Service, 8260 2122.

A: Whilst there is a cost associated with this, it is possible to recycle oil filters. There are two major companies that can help you with this. They are:

Transpacific Industries
Phone: 8344 0900
Fax. 8344 0966

and

Mulherns
Ph: 8244 4077
Fax: 8244 6004

A: ‘Green bags’ are made from polypropylene and these may never break down, or take a long time to break down, in landfill. The simple answer is that they shouldn’t go to landfill, they can be recycled into other longer lasting plastic items like park benches and bollards. It’s true that single use plastic bags can also be recycled, but few are. Even if ‘green bags’ are disposed to landfill they are still a much better option environmentally than single use plastic bags. Research carried out for the Commonwealth Government by Nolan ITU found that compared with ‘green bags’ manufacture of single use plastic bags created over three times the greenhouse gas and used almost five times as much energy. You can read the report here.

The report also shows that biodegradable bags are a worse option than single use bags, stating:

“Little or negative gain was found to be derived from the shift from single use bags to other single use bags such as biodegradable bags and paper bags, with potential litter gains offset by negative resource use, energy and greenhouse outcomes.”

Sustainability Victoria have produced a report to compare the environmental impacts of shopping bags and the available alternatives in Australia. You can read their report here.

A: Single use plastic shopping bags are made from high density polyethylene (usually abbreviated to HDPE) – the same plastic that is used for two litre milk and juice containers but much thinner. HDPE is made from oil and it takes 1.75 kilograms of oil (in terms of energy and raw materials) to make one kilogram of HDPE.

I am writing to you to ask you to help us make our festival a waste-free public event in SA. Unfortunately, the venue does not have any recycling bins and we would like to be more eco-friendly and waste-free. Could you be so kind and inform me about the possibilities of obtaining recycling bins for the event?

A: In the past Zero Waste SA has assisted event organisers by funding events to become a Zero Waste Event by following our guidelines.

We don’t actually provide bins, but we would recommend you contact the Council in which the event will be located. They may be able to provide you with some infrastructure and more advice. You should also talk to your waste and cleaning contractor and work with them to reduce the amount of waste produced. It is important to work with those who collect the waste and recycling, whoever they may be, so everyone is aware of the waste minimisation intentions.

Also, if you haven’t already contact KESAB on 8234 7255.