E-waste is any item with a plug, battery or power cord that’s no longer working or wanted. Some people call it electronic waste.

E-waste includes:

  • phones
  • laptops
  • monitors
  • fridges
  • air conditioners
  • electric toys like trains and racing cars. 

Recycling e-waste

E-waste cannot go in your yellow bin because this causes a fire risk at kerbside recycling facilities. This includes waste batteries of any type (including lithium) because they can cause fires if they break, get punctured or overheat.

To recycle e-waste:

Why you must recycle e-waste at a collection point

E-waste contains:

  • hazardous materials that are bad for people’s health and the environment when left in a landfill
  • valuable reusable resources like copper, gold and silver.

The law says landfills in Victoria must not accept e-waste. This means you must take your e-waste to a collection point for recycling.

How to dispose of smoke alarms

You can dispose of domestic smoke detectors or alarms in your normal household rubbish.

Don’t dismantle, crush or shred your smoke alarm. It may contain americium, a hazardous material.

The amount of americium in each smoke alarm is very small.

When a domestic smoke detector has replaceable batteries, you can remove the batteries from an undamaged smoke detector. Dispose the batteries by following the advice from Sustainability Victoria.

Read more how-to guides

Remove and dispose of asbestos 

Dispose of building, renovation or home demolition waste

Hire a skip bin

Book a noise test for your vehicle

Recycle household waste

Find a landfill or recycling centre 

Reviewed 2 October 2020