Australia generated 588,000 tonnes of e-waste in 2023, up 38 percent in a decade, and the figure keeps climbing. With the Windows 10 refresh wave now adding millions of retired devices, this guide pulls together the latest national data and the trends shaping how businesses retire IT in 2026, from recovery rates to regulation and the shift from recycling to reuse.
Volume is still rising: 588,000 tonnes in 2023, heading towards a projected 657,000 tonnes by 2030. Recovery still lags: only about a third of the material value is recovered, and the national scheme recovers roughly 9 percent of total e-waste by weight. Regulation is tightening: an e-stewardship framework and new product categories are expanding what must be recycled. The big shift is from recycling to reuse, as businesses chase both cost savings and lower Scope 3 emissions. For a business, that means data destruction, certified recycling, and remarketing are converging into one decision.
Where Australian e-waste stands now. Figures from named public sources.
E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in Australia, and the national figures show no sign of slowing. Australia created 511,000 tonnes in 2019, rose to 588,000 tonnes by 2023, and is projected to reach 657,000 tonnes by 2030. On a per-person basis, Australia generates far more than the global average, which places it among the highest e-waste producers per capita in the world.
The trend mirrors the global picture. The Global E-Waste Monitor 2024 reported that the world generated 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022, on track to reach 82 million tonnes by 2030, while documented recycling is rising about five times more slowly than generation. In other words, we are producing e-waste far faster than we are recovering it, in Australia and worldwide.
Sources: DCCEEW (2019, 2030 projection); ABS Waste Account 2024 (2023).
Generating e-waste is only half the picture. The bigger issue is how little of it is recovered. Australia recovers only about a third of the material value in its e-waste, and by weight the national television and computer scheme recovers roughly 9 percent of the total. The rest goes to general recycling streams, landfill, or sits in stockpiles in homes and warehouses. In value terms, this gap is large: around 430 million dollars of materials were lost to landfill in a single year.
The recovery gap is exactly where businesses can make the biggest difference. Corporate IT is higher value and easier to recover than mixed household waste, so choosing a recycler that processes to the AS/NZS 5377 standard, and that remarkets working equipment, lifts the share of value that is actually recovered rather than lost.
The rules around e-waste are expanding, not standing still. Government work on an e-stewardship regulatory framework is bringing more product categories into scope, including small household appliances, which will significantly increase the volume of regulated e-waste. State landfill bans continue to widen, with Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia already prohibiting e-waste from landfill. For business, the direction is clear: more documentation, more accountability, and more pressure to use compliant disposal rather than general waste.
The most important trend for 2026 is the move up the waste hierarchy, from recycling towards reuse. Recycling reclaims raw materials, but refurbishment keeps a whole device working for another three to five years, which avoids far more emissions. Industry analysis in 2026 found that asset reuse can deliver up to twenty times the greenhouse gas avoidance of recycling. This is now driving decisions at the executive level through Scope 3 emissions reporting.
It is also a structural market shift. The global IT asset disposition market reached around 25 billion US dollars in 2024 and is forecast to reach 54.5 billion by 2030, growing at roughly 14 percent a year. Australian businesses are part of that trend, not separate from it, which is why buyback and remarketing of retired equipment is becoming a standard part of disposal rather than an afterthought.
At ITC, working equipment is assessed for secure reuse and remarketing before anything is recycled, which recovers value for your business and delivers the larger environmental benefit. Whatever cannot be reused is recycled in line with the AS/NZS 5377 standard.
The single biggest near-term driver of business e-waste in Australia is a software deadline. Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on 14 October 2025, and because Windows 11 has stricter hardware requirements, a large share of existing business PCs cannot simply upgrade. The result is a synchronised refresh wave, with organisations retiring fleets of otherwise working machines at the same time.
The scale is significant. Canalys estimated the transition could turn around 240 million PCs into e-waste globally, and in Australia industry voices have pointed to roughly 6 million devices facing the changeover, which could equate to about 12 million kilograms of equipment if those machines are discarded rather than reused. For businesses, this is not a future problem, it is happening now through 2026 and beyond.
A synchronised refresh is also an opportunity. Many retired Windows 10 machines are still perfectly serviceable and can be securely wiped and remarketed for a second life, rather than scrapped. ITC handles the data destruction and assessment so working assets are reused where possible, and only what cannot be reused is recycled.
Two pressures that used to be separate are now part of the same conversation. On one side, ESG and Scope 3 reporting means businesses need evidence of what happened to retired assets, the certificates and chain of custody that show responsible disposal. On the other, retired IT remains a live cybersecurity risk, because a device that still holds data is a breach waiting to happen, with penalties of up to 50 million dollars under the Privacy Act.
In 2026, the same documentation answers both. A certified disposal process that destroys data to the NIST 800-88 standard and recycles to the AS/NZS 5377 standard produces the records that satisfy auditors and ESG reporting at the same time. For a business, secure data destruction and environmental compliance are no longer two jobs, they are one.
Common questions about Australian e-waste data and trends.
Australia generated about 588,000 tonnes of e-waste in 2023, according to the ABS Waste Account released in 2024, which is around 38 percent growth over a decade. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water projects this will reach about 657,000 tonnes by 2030. E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the country.
Australia recovers only about a third of the material value in its e-waste, and by weight the national television and computer recycling scheme recovers roughly 9 percent of the total. The rest goes to other recycling streams, landfill, or stockpiles. In one year, around 430 million dollars of recoverable material was lost to landfill, according to DCCEEW.
Recycling recovers raw materials, but reusing or refurbishing a device keeps the whole product working for another three to five years, which avoids far more emissions. Industry analysis in 2026 found reuse can deliver up to twenty times the greenhouse gas avoidance of recycling, which is why businesses focused on Scope 3 emissions are prioritising it.
Rising volumes, tightening regulation, and ESG reporting mean businesses face more accountability for how they retire IT. At the same time, data security law makes secure destruction essential. The practical result is that data destruction, certified recycling, and reuse are converging into a single decision, supported by certificates and a chain of custody record.
In Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, e-waste is banned from landfill and must be recycled through designated facilities. Other states strongly discourage it, and regulation is widening. Regardless of the rule in your state, sending electronics to landfill wastes recoverable material and risks hazardous substances entering the environment.
Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on 14 October 2025, and because many machines cannot meet Windows 11 hardware requirements, businesses are retiring large numbers of PCs at once. Canalys estimated the transition could turn around 240 million PCs into e-waste globally, with roughly 6 million devices affected in Australia. Many of these machines still work and can be securely wiped and reused rather than scrapped.
ITC helps Sydney and national businesses retire IT in line with 2026 expectations, secure data destruction, certified recycling, and reuse, with the documentation to prove it.
