The Clarence Plains Spring Clean will happen again on Saturday the 7th of October from 9am at the Clarendon Vale Neighbourhood Centre (63 Mockridge Rd, Clarendon Vale) and the Rokeby Neighbourhood Centre (81 Tollard Dr, Rokeby).

If you want to join the Rokeby clean up you can register at:

http://cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/Joseph+st+to+Duntroon+Drv

If you want to join the Clarendon Vale clean up you can register at:

http://cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/Pass+Rd+to+Marston+St

If you want more information please contact Matt on ph. 1800 269 672.

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Linda’s War on Waste

The Dangers of E-Waste

(By Haylee M)

Every year Australians throw out millions of unwanted or old electrical items, such as mobile phones, computers and televisions.

Many of these things end up in landfill, where dangerous substances such as lithium, lead, and mercury may leak out into the surrounding land as the electrical item begins to break down. These dangerous substances build up in the soil so the soil becomes toxic too.

So what can we do to stop this? 

Tasmania has many e-waste (which stands for electronic-waste) recycling sites, with most tips taking at least some forms of e-waste. You can find out where the best place is to drop off your unwanted item by going to http://recyclingnearyou.com.au/ (the best place may not be the tip!).

What happens to your recycled e-waste? 

E-waste that is sent to be recycled will be dismantled and sorted into parts that need to be recycled in certain ways. For example, recycling a mobile phone involves stripping away all the plastic casing, removing the glass, and separating the circuit boards and batteries. Each of these individual bits are further recycled.

Circuit boards are often sent to Japan, where precious metals such as gold and copper are recovered using heat and chemicals to separate them. Batteries are also recycled (often in South Korea) to recover the lithium, cobalt, and occasionally any cadmium that they contain.

Recycled elements often find their way into new electronic products.

E-waste recycling really does help to look after the planet!