Most sustainability leads working through their first Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards disclosure have the same blind spot. They have solid data on electricity. They have travel numbers. They have supply chain estimates.
Then someone asks: what about the 200 laptops we sent to recycling last quarter?
Silence.
Scope 3 is now mandatory. IT disposal sits inside it.
Australia’s mandatory climate reporting regime began for Group 1 entities in January 2025 under AASB S2. Group 2 entities, typically those with at least $500 million in consolidated gross assets or $200 million in consolidated annual revenue, begin their first ASRS reporting period from 1 July 2026. That is weeks away.
Scope 3 covers all indirect emissions in an organisation’s value chain. Category 5, waste generated in operations, includes the end-of-life processing of computers, servers, monitors, mobile phones, and other IT equipment that passes through your business each year. For a business running 500 workstations on a standard four-year refresh cycle, that is around 125 devices disposed of annually. Each device has a weight, a material composition, and an associated CO2e footprint.
If your organisation generates e-waste, and every organisation does, that is a Scope 3 Category 5 emission. The ASRS framework requires you to show your methodology, data sources, and verification approach.
The data problem most businesses don’t see coming
The challenge is not intention. Most businesses want to handle their old IT equipment responsibly. The challenge is documentation.
An auditor reviewing your ASRS S2 disclosure will want to know: how many kilograms of equipment were disposed of, what was the material breakdown, what processing method was applied, and what was the resulting CO2e footprint?
A certificate of destruction is a start. It is not an audit trail. The GRI 306 standard and CDP frameworks, which inform best practice under ASRS, expect asset-level records and material-level CO2e data, not a single-page PDF issued weeks after equipment left your building.
Informal disposal creates a real compliance gap
Some organisations still manage IT disposal informally. Equipment gets passed between departments, sold privately, or collected by a local service with no formal chain of custody. Under ASRS, that creates a measurable gap in your Scope 3 data, and gaps require disclosure.
Victorian businesses carry an additional obligation. Since 1 July 2019, the Victorian e-waste landfill ban has prohibited businesses from disposing of e-waste through general waste streams. Non-compliance is a regulatory breach, not just a reporting gap. Auditors and regulators are not the same body, but one gap can quickly invite both.
What your ITAD provider should be giving you
For Scope 3 compliance, your IT asset disposal provider should deliver asset-level collection records with device identifiers and weights, material composition estimates by device category, CO2e avoided through material recovery and refurbishment, landfill diversion totals, and a consolidated report formatted for Category 5 disclosure.
At Electronic Waste Victoria, our CircularTrack reporting system captures every device across the collection, processing, and outcome stages. When year-end approaches and your sustainability team needs Scope 3 evidence, CircularTrack produces a structured CO2e and diversion report your auditor can work with directly.
Our operations align with AS/NZS 5377 (responsible e-waste recycling), ISO 14001 (environmental management), and ISO 27001 (information security). The methodology behind every number is documented and defensible under Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards.
Five weeks is not long
Group 2 entities entering their first ASRS reporting period have limited time to establish baseline data across Scope 3 categories. IT equipment disposal is one of the more straightforward categories to get right. It is transactional, traceable, and depends on a single supplier relationship.
If you do not know whether your current ITAD provider can produce audit-ready CO2e data, that is the question to ask today.
Contact Electronic Waste Victoria for a no-obligation consultation on Scope 3 IT asset disposal reporting. Visit ewastevictoria.net.au to book a call.