Where our story began
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Confronted by the scale of the e-waste crisis
Our CEO, Anthony Karam started on this journey in 2017 after seeing firsthand, the enormous e-waste landfill dumps in Africa. At the same time, he was exposed to emerging, but mostly untested, new technologies aimed at solving complex challenges.
These experiences ignited a passion and kickstarted an investigation into what was really happening with the world’s stockpile of e-waste.
What he found was shocking and so he gathered a small band of curious and dedicated individuals, and started to think about, what if we could do better? What would it take? What would it look like? How could we do it? And ultimately, why wouldn’t we? We needed to think outside the circle.
The scale of the problem we face
This challenge is so enormous, affects every corner of the planet, and back then, no-one anywhere had an end-to-end solution. It was a daunting task full of moments when the team thought about giving up, but then another breakthrough would happen.
When we started, and sadly still common today, the approach to e-waste recycling involves manual dismantling, removal of just a few valuable commodities and an enormous amount of product going into the ground. Often, commodity recovery uses smelters which create their own significant environmental impact.
The team also wanted to recover these metals and enable their reuse in manufacturing, to offset some of the devastating environmental impacts of virgin mining.
We have changed the game
After seven years, tens of millions invested in R&D and equipment, months spent travelling the world, false starts, failed attempts, and thousands of questions, the Sircel team has done what many along the journey thought was impossible – developed an end-to-end solution with the first plant operating right here in Australia and a growing capacity to expand across the globe.
Making better possible.
This is Sircel
We set out on a mission to solve for every waste stream. Now, it’s not just a mission, it’s a reality. Every day, at six operational sites around Australia, we’re bringing end-of-life technology back to life.
Frequently
Asked
Questions
What is e-waste?
E-waste is anything that operates with an electrical plug or battery. Think laptops, phones, TVs, white goods – any household appliance. It’s also the things we don’t see in our daily lives, like servers, data centers, communication exchanges, and control panels for industrial equipment.
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E-waste is anything that operates with an electrical plug or battery. Think laptops, phones, TVs, white goods – any household appliance. It’s also the things we don’t see in our daily lives, like servers, data centers, communication exchanges, and control panels for industrial equipment.
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Frequently Asked Questions
As pioneers in resource regeneration, people ask us questions frequently. Here are the most common.
What happens to our e-waste that we
drop off?
All e-waste is processed at one of Sircel’s six facilities in Australia. Our large-scale, specialised machinery breaks down your e-waste into <1mm fractions and separates the output into different commodities such as steel, aluminium and copper. All data is securely erased from any computing device. Up to 100% of materials are diverted from landfill and redirected back into the circular economy.
What types of e-waste can we drop off?
E-waste includes anything that needs a power source, like computers, servers, kitchen appliances and whitegoods. It also includes civic structures like telecommunication exchanges. We accept all e-waste – from solar panels and commercial servers to household items such as TVs, computers, mobile phones, printers, and small household appliances. Batteries, large white goods, and light globes are not accepted through our standard service. You can see a complete list of what we accept here.
What happens to my data?
Every single computing device that contains data is sanitised to the highest grade using world-leading Blancco technology, right here in Australia.
Our expert team securely erases data from your retired IT Assets and provides you with a digitally signed Blancco Data Erasure Certificate. Each device undergoes a full hardware test using Blancco Drive Erasers built-in test module. Devices which pass our stringent tests are then thoroughly cleaned and re-used by clients. This prevents a perfectly working asset from going to landfill and instead back into commercial use, often with charity and community organisations. What we can’t repurpose, we destroy and recycle using our proprietary in-house mechanical processing equipment, right here in Australia.
What are the environmental benefits to recycling e-waste?
The environmental benefits to recycling e-waste are multiple but primarily, effective e-waste recycling prevents hazardous chemicals entering the environment and it recovers valuable commodities for reuse. When electronic devices degrade, they can leach dangerous materials such as lead, mercury and arsenic into our waterways and soil, causing environmental and health hazards. Electronic waste isn’t just trash though – locked inside e-waste are valuable materials like iron, copper and steel that we can reuse in the circular economy, instead of continually mining them from the earth or burying them back in the ground. The reuse of commodities has economic benefits for manufacturers too.
How much does it cost?
It is free for households to drop off e-waste to council-sponsored events and at e-waste collection cages at a council resource recovery center (or tip).
For businesses, we install a range of onsite, secure collection options for free and often, pick up is also free (location depending). Recycling costs vary depending on the materials we are processing for you.
Does anything go to landfill?
All items that arrive at Sircel are triaged, which drastically reduces the need for landfill. We recycle up to 100% of e-waste materials that we receive using our customised equipment. For items that we cannot safely, efficiently recycle here, such as batteries, we use downstream recycling partners who are accredited through the NTCRS scheme and process here in Australia. We do not ship e-waste overseas. Plastics are converted into a RES8 plastics product, which can be remanufactured into things like construction rock alternatives, fence posts or park benches.
Our technology can recover each recyclable component of e-waste, but some devices come with non-recyclable materials, such as speaker systems and television frames that are made with treated timber. That’s why we say “up to 100%” – it would be naive to guarantee 100% when there’s no assurance of what materials are coming through the door. On rare occasions, sending certain materials (such as cardboard or treated timber) to landfill is the better option.