Take your e-waste to the right place at Council’s free drop-off event

Saturday, 10 September 2022

Pack old, broken and unwanted electronic items into the boot of your car or trailer and bring them down to the new location at The Kingsway Playing Fields car park in Werrington for Council’s free Electronic Waste Drop-off Day on Saturday 17 September between 9am and 3:30pm.

Electronic waste or e-waste is growing at three times the rate of any other waste. It’s important to take it to the right place, such as Council’s free E-waste Drop-off Day, as some items contain valuable materials which can be recovered, recycled and reused to make other products. This resource recovery process is not possible when they are disposed of in household bins and, sadly, end up in landfill.

Council encourages residents to pack up old, unwanted and broken televisions, computers, small kitchen appliances, stereos, mobile phones and other electronic waste, place them in the back of the car or trailer, and attend the event where friendly staff will unload them for you.

Penrith Mayor Tricia Hitchen praised the drop-off day and described it as a great initiative.

“Our residents' ongoing commitment to recycling is something to be celebrated,” Cr Hitchen said.

“The 2022 February drop-off event was a great success, where residents diverted 95% of the electronic waste from landfill, with 1,176 cars attending the event and a total of 30,000kgs collected. This was a huge increase in attendance and collected e-waste from 2020’s e-waste event, which was attended by 638 cars and collected 16,000kg, then again in 2021, where there were 976 cars in attendance and collected 21,400 kgs,” she said.

“It’s vital that we dispose of these items responsibly so that they can be recycled. When sent to landfill, they take up a huge amount of unnecessary space, plus there’s the added risk of some components being toxic to the environment and leaching into the soil if disposed of this way.

“The consistent amount of e-waste dropped off in past years shows that Penrith residents genuinely care about our environment and are keen to do their part in keeping these items out of landfill, which is a great outcome for our City,” Cr Hitchen concluded.

The event will be contactless and Council requests residents remain in their vehicles while staff unload the items from their boots or trailers.

For more information about the drop-off day and what waste is accepted, visit https://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/upcoming-events

For residents who miss the drop-off day, Council encourages them to take their e-waste to the Penrith Community Recycling Centre located at Gate 3, 96 Dunheved Circuit, St Marys, for free recycling. More information is available at https://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/waste-environment/waste/community-recycling-centre

Information contained within this news release was correct as at Saturday, 10 September 2022.