Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise today to discuss another environmental success story in my electorate of Port Adelaide that will have tremendous environmental and economic flow-on effects for South Australia and for the nation. On 20 May the South Australian Minister for the Environment and Conservation, Jay Weatherill, and I attended the launch of CRT Recycling’s new automated recycling system. This system specialises in recycling cathode ray tubes, which are also described as CRTs. This plant is the only one of its kind in Australia and New Zealand. It utilises CRTs from previously landfill-bound broken and unused television sets and computer monitors. The plant has significant economic and environmental benefits for the community, removing some of the estimated 1.5 million to two million televisions that are currently being disposed of in landfill rubbish dumps each year. This number is also likely to increase with improvements in digital and flat-screen television technology, making plants like this an integral part of the global recycling solution.

CRT Recycling has had a positive export impact already, with the majority of glass going back into the manufacture of TVs in Malaysia. Each CRT can contain up to four kilograms of lead and a range of heavy metals. These potentially harmful metals are cleaned, separated and removed in the CRT recycling process. They are often reused at other plants in the state, keeping the recycling solution very local.

Already 12 new green-collar jobs have been created at the plant that was launched only a couple of weeks ago. These jobs not only promote financial recovery in Australia but also contribute to a better environmental solution. I have been very proud to support E-Cycle Recovery and CRT Recycling Australia’s passion for the environment, jobs and our future. The company’s business manager, Michelle Morton, is one of the outstanding young business leaders of South Australia. Michelle was mentored by the North West Business Development Centre, which is the local BEC for Port Adelaide. Incidentally, that BEC recently won the global prize for world’s best incubator, which was awarded in the United States only a month or two ago. Michelle is a great example of the product that that BEC is producing in the north-western area of Adelaide. Michelle has won a number of prestigious prizes for business that recognise her innovative work. I am confident that we will be hearing much more in the future about Michelle Morton and her company’s important work.