Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery (e-waste) Regulations 2024

Part 1 (other than regulations 3 to 7) — on the day on which these regulations are published on the WA legislation website;

the rest of the regulations — on 1 July 2024.

means an entity involved in business, industry, trade or commerce; but

does not include a public entity;

an agency or organisation as those terms are defined in the Public Sector Management Act 1994 section 3(1); or

a local government or a regional local government; or

a body, corporate or unincorporate, that is established or continued for a public purpose by the State, regardless of the way it is established;

Outer Regional Australia (SA1 average ARIA+ value range greater than 2.4 and less than or equal to 5.92);

Remote Australia (SA1 average ARIA+ value range greater than 5.92 and less than or equal to 10.53);

Very Remote Australia (SA1 average ARIA+ value range greater than 10.53);

recovered materials; or

materials suitable to be used in energy recovery;

has 200 or more employees at the beginning of the financial year; or

created, during the immediately preceding financial year, 5 or more tonnes of regulated e‑waste;

For the purpose of determining whether a business entity is a significant entity in relation to a financial year —

the number of employees of the business entity is taken to include the number of employees of any related entity to the business entity; and

the amount of regulated e‑waste (determined according to weight) created by the business entity is taken to include the amount of regulated e‑waste created by any related entity of the business entity.

For the purposes of subregulation (1), 2 or more entities are related entities if they are related bodies corporate under the Corporations Act 2001 (Commonwealth) section 9.

regulated e‑waste that has been unintentionally captured after it has been placed in a kerbside or other similar bin; or

regulated e‑waste that has been mixed with other waste and is not known to be present with that other waste at the time of disposal; or

residual waste.

An e‑waste service provider must not send regulated e‑waste to, or leave regulated e‑waste at, a landfill site.

A significant entity must not send regulated e‑waste to, or leave regulated e‑waste at, a landfill site.

It is a defence to a charge of an offence under subregulation (1) or (2) to prove that the e‑waste service provider or a significant entity that is a business entity (as the case may be) sent the regulated e‑waste to, or left the regulated e‑waste at, the landfill site in the reasonable expectation that the regulated e‑waste would be aggregated (either at the landfill site or at some other place).

A public entity is not in breach of subregulation (2) if the public entity sent the regulated e‑waste to, or left the regulated e‑waste at, a landfill site in the reasonable expectation that the regulated e‑waste would be aggregated (either at the landfill site or at some other place).

A landfill operator must not dispose of regulated e‑waste that has been accepted at a landfill site to landfill.

It is a defence to a charge of an offence under subregulation (5) to prove that the landfill operator —

obtained a written declaration, signed by the person who left the waste accepted at the landfill site, that the person had no reason to believe that the waste contained or was regulated e‑waste; or

did not know, and could not reasonably have known, that waste accepted at the landfill site contained or was regulated e‑waste.

An e‑waste service provider must store regulated e‑waste only for the purposes of management, aggregation, treatment, processing, sorting, recycling or transfer.

An e‑waste service provider must not store regulated e‑waste for more than —

if the regulated e‑waste is stored in a remote area — 24 months after the end of the month in which the regulated e‑waste is received; or

otherwise — 12 months after the end of the month in which the regulated e‑waste is received.

For the purposes of subregulation (2)(a), regulated e‑waste is stored in a remote area if the premises where the regulated e‑waste is stored are in a remote area when the regulated e‑waste is received.

An e‑waste service provider must not, during the collection, storage or transportation of regulated e‑waste by the provider, do anything that would reduce the ability of the regulated e‑waste to be treated, processed or recycled.

An e‑waste service provider must, to the extent that the provider undertakes the separation or recycling of regulated e‑waste, maximise the recovery of recovered materials and minimise the amount of residual waste from the regulated e‑waste.

It is a defence to a charge of an offence under subregulation (2), (3) or (4) to prove that the e‑waste service provider took reasonable steps to avoid the commission of the offence.

In determining what constitutes reasonable steps for the purposes of subregulation (5), it is relevant to take into account the management standard.

This regulation applies to regulated e‑waste collected or received by an e‑waste service provider that is mixed with other waste.

The e‑waste service provider must separate the regulated e‑waste from the other waste.

It is a defence to a charge of an offence under subregulation (2) to prove that the e‑waste service provider —

took reasonable steps to avoid the commission of the offence; or

did not know, and could not reasonably have known, that the regulated e‑waste was mixed with the other waste.

In determining what constitutes reasonable steps for the purposes of subregulation (3)(a), it is relevant to take into account the management standard.

This regulation applies to an e‑waste service provider required to hold a licence as defined in the EP Act section 3(1) in respect of premises used for the purpose of storing, treating or processing regulated e‑waste, whether or not a licence is in force.

The e‑waste service provider must record the following information for each financial year in connection with the provider’s business or undertaking —

a description of the regulated e‑waste using the categories of regulated e‑waste in Schedule 1 column 1;

for each category of regulated e‑waste in Schedule 1 column 1 — the weight of regulated e‑waste collected or received by the provider;

for each category of regulated e‑waste in Schedule 1 column 1 — the weight of recovered materials and residual waste produced by the provider;

for each person to whom the provider transferred regulated e‑waste —

the name and address of the person; and

the weight of regulated e‑waste transferred.

The e‑waste service provider must, not later than 1 October in each year, lodge with the CEO a return containing the information required to be recorded under subregulation (2) for the immediately preceding financial year.

The return must be in a form approved by the CEO.

A significant entity must keep regulated e‑waste resulting from its activities separate from other waste.

A significant entity must not store regulated e‑waste resulting from the significant entity’s activities for more than —

if the regulated e‑waste is stored in a remote area — 24 months after the end of the month in which the regulated e‑waste results from the significant entity’s activities; or

otherwise — 12 months after the end of the month in which the regulated e‑waste results from the significant entity’s activities.

For the purposes of subregulation (2)(a), regulated e‑waste is stored in a remote area if the premises where the regulated e‑waste is stored are in a remote area when the regulated e‑waste results from the significant entity’s activities.

A significant entity must not, during the storage or transportation of regulated e‑waste resulting from its activities, do anything that would reduce the ability of the regulated e‑waste to be treated, processed or recycled.

A significant entity must transfer regulated e‑waste resulting from its activities to an e‑waste service provider.

It is a defence to a charge of an offence under subregulation (1), (2), (3) or (4) for a significant entity that is a business entity to prove that the significant entity took reasonable steps to avoid the commission of the offence.

A public entity will not be in breach of subregulation (1), (2), (3) or (4) if the public entity takes reasonable steps to avoid the breach.

In determining what constitutes reasonable steps for the purposes of subregulation (5) or (6), it is relevant to take into account the management standard.