This week MobileMuster participated in the first South Pacific Workshop on E-waste in Brisbane, which was hosted by Griffith University and supported by StEP (Solving the E-Waste Problem), E-waste 2010, and it brought together manufacturers, recyclers, researchers, local, state and federal governments and non-government organisations.

Rose Read, Manager Recycling, Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association presented on a paper on: "Mobile Phone Recycling in Australia: Challenges and Outcomes".

The conference discussed innovative ideas, experiences and solutions to the E-waste problem that will feed into an international workshop to be held next year to develop a regional strategy for e-waste. MobileMuster continues to support the challenge of Ewaste through its own free industry funded take back program, and also passing on its experiences from the past decade to the development of new, coordinated industry policy.

Ms Read in her presentation illustrated how tools like market research, life cycle analysis and independent auditing have improved awareness, transparency and sustainability of mobile phone recycling in Australia.

She outlined how MobileMuster has grown from a little known program in the late 1990s to become a leader in electronic waste recycling in Australia with a public collection network of over 3,500 drop off points and a free post-in option.

She explained how education and changing community behaviour has been a key strategy to MobileMuster’s success and that improving the program’s transparency and sustainability has also been critical to establishing community trust and government endorsement.

However, the challenges of getting people to let go of their old mobiles for recycling and auditing material recovery from the various recycling processes still remain.

Five years after the MobileMuster brand was launched, there are now a number of new commercially funded mobile phone recycling/refurbishing programs entering the market, creating a suite of new e-waste challenges for the region along with the rapidly evolving telecommunications market and product offer.

She also explored how the telecommunications industry through an integrated e-waste program and partnerships with reuse programs will ensure its product stewardship responsibilities are met in the long term.