The Australian Democrats are urging the Minister for Environment, Iain Evans, to take a leap into the 21^st century and make the recycling of used computers compulsory.

"We can stay with yesterday’s solution of dumping computers in landfill where they become toxic time bombs of lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium or we can grasp the environmental benefits of recycling computers and establish a viable industry at the same time," says Sandra Kanck, Democrats Waste Management spokesperson.

"The exponential growth in the use of computers, the rapid fall in their price and their inbuilt obsolescence is creating a mountain of discarded computers.

"To continue with a 20^th century approach of just throwing computers away and forgetting about them is to threaten the groundwater near landfill with carcinogenic pollutants.

"The positive news is that up to 97 per cent of a computer, either for their component parts or as scrap, can be recycled in one form or another.

"Other advanced countries have legislated to ban the dumping of computers in landfill. Sweden requires that all computers be recycled. In the United States the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act forbids companies from disposing of computers to landfill. As a consequence many companies in the US routinely donate used computers to schools and charities.

"The Minister needs to take an active role if the recycling of computers is to be a viable industry."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Sandra Kanck

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