General Environmental Duty and E-Waste Disposal

Understanding Victoria’s General Environmental Duty

The general environmental duty (GED) is the cornerstone of Victoria’s modern environmental legislation. Introduced by the Environment Protection Act 2017 and in force since 1 July 2021, it requires every person and business in Victoria to take reasonably practicable steps to minimise risks of harm to human health and the environment from pollution and waste. For e-waste management, the GED creates obligations that go beyond simply following the landfill ban. It requires a proactive, thoughtful approach to how electronic waste is generated, stored, and disposed of.

The GED is deliberately broad. Unlike specific regulations that tell you exactly what to do in defined circumstances, the GED asks you to think about what risks your activities create and take reasonable steps to address them. This means the duty applies even in situations where no specific regulation exists for a particular type of waste or activity. It is a safety net that catches environmental risks that specific rules might miss.

How the GED Applies to E-Waste

The GED applies to every stage of the e-waste lifecycle within your control. Here is what that looks like in practice for a typical business.

Generation: The duty encourages minimising waste generation. For e-waste, this means considering whether equipment needs replacing or can be repaired or upgraded. Extending the useful life of electronic equipment through maintenance, upgrades, and proper care reduces the volume of e-waste generated. While this does not mean keeping unsafe or non-functional equipment in service, it does mean that disposal should not be the automatic first response when equipment shows signs of age.

Storage: How you store e-waste on your premises before disposal matters under the GED. Electronic waste can contain hazardous materials that create risks if stored improperly. Lithium batteries can cause fires if damaged. CRT monitors can break, releasing lead-containing glass. Fluorescent tubes can crack, releasing mercury vapour. The GED requires you to store e-waste in a way that minimises these risks: in a secure area, protected from damage, with hazardous items separated and labelled.

Transport: Moving e-waste from your premises to a recycling facility involves risks that the GED requires you to manage. Equipment should be transported securely to prevent breakage, spills, or loss. Hazardous items like batteries and CRT monitors require particular care during transport. If you use a contractor for e-waste collection, the GED requires you to take reasonable steps to ensure the contractor handles the waste properly.

Disposal: The GED reinforces the landfill ban by requiring you to use appropriate disposal channels. But it goes further by requiring you to take reasonable steps to verify that your chosen disposal method actually manages the environmental risks. Using a fly-by-night waste operator who dumps your e-waste in a field is not compliant with the GED, even if you did not know about the dumping, if you failed to make reasonable inquiries about the operator’s practices.

What Does “Reasonably Practicable” Mean?

The GED does not require you to eliminate all environmental risk at any cost. It requires you to do what is reasonably practicable. This is an important qualifier that balances environmental protection with practical considerations.

In assessing what is reasonably practicable, the factors considered include the likelihood and severity of potential harm, the state of knowledge about the risk and ways to manage it, the availability and suitability of measures to manage the risk, and the cost of those measures relative to the risk. For a large corporation generating tonnes of e-waste, the expected standard of management will be higher than for a sole trader with a handful of old devices.

For most businesses, meeting the GED in relation to e-waste is not difficult or expensive. It involves basic practices like separating e-waste from general waste, using reputable disposal providers, and keeping basic records. These are straightforward steps that most responsible businesses take anyway. The GED formalises the expectation and provides a legal basis for enforcement when businesses fall short.

The GED and Waste Contractors

Many businesses rely on waste management contractors to handle their general waste and recycling. A common assumption is that once waste is handed to a contractor, the business’s responsibility ends. Under the GED, this is not entirely the case.

While the contractor has their own GED obligations in relation to how they handle, transport, and dispose of waste, the business generating the waste retains a duty to take reasonably practicable steps to ensure their waste is managed properly. This does not mean you need to follow your waste contractor to the recycling facility. It means you should:

Choose a contractor who is licensed and reputable. Communicate clearly about the types of waste you generate, including e-waste. Verify that the contractor has appropriate processes for handling e-waste separately from general waste. Ask for documentation confirming proper disposal. And be alert to red flags like unusually low prices, reluctance to provide disposal documentation, or a contractor who does not seem to differentiate between general waste and e-waste.

If you are looking for guidance on selecting a disposal partner specifically for IT equipment, our guide on choosing an ITAD provider covers the key evaluation criteria.

GED Compliance for Specific E-Waste Risks

Some categories of e-waste present specific risks that the GED requires you to address.

Lithium batteries present fire and explosion risks that have become a major concern in the waste industry. The GED requires businesses to take reasonable steps to manage these risks, including proper storage away from heat and flammable materials, avoiding damage to battery-containing devices during handling, and ensuring batteries are directed to appropriate recycling channels rather than general waste. For more on this, see our article on lithium battery dangers in e-waste.

Data-bearing devices present privacy risks rather than environmental risks, but the principle of proactive risk management still applies. While the GED is focused on environmental harm, the Privacy Act 1988 creates parallel obligations for managing data on disposed equipment. Addressing both the environmental and data security aspects of e-waste disposal is best practice. Our guide to data breach prevention covers the data security dimension.

Bulk e-waste from office relocations, refurbishments, or equipment upgrades can create risks if not managed promptly. Stockpiling large quantities of e-waste on your premises for extended periods increases fire risk (from batteries), contamination risk (from breakage), and the risk of theft or informal disposal by well-meaning but uninformed staff.

Documenting Your Compliance

While the GED does not specify particular record-keeping requirements, maintaining documentation of your e-waste management practices is strongly recommended. If your practices are ever questioned by EPA Victoria, being able to demonstrate what steps you took is far more effective than relying on verbal assurances.

Useful records include an inventory of e-waste generated (type, quantity, date), receipts or collection dockets from your disposal provider, certificates of data destruction for data-bearing equipment, and any relevant correspondence with waste contractors about e-waste handling procedures.

For businesses with ISO 14001 environmental management systems, e-waste management documentation integrates naturally into existing compliance frameworks. For others, a simple file containing disposal records and provider details is sufficient to demonstrate due diligence.

The GED as Good Business Practice

While the GED is a legal obligation, the practices it encourages are fundamentally just good business. Storing waste safely prevents workplace incidents. Using reputable disposal providers protects against liability. Keeping records supports compliance and audit readiness. And managing e-waste responsibly supports the sustainability credentials that are increasingly important to customers, employees, and investors.

For a broader view of how the GED fits within Victoria’s environmental regulatory framework, see our article on e-waste and the Environment Protection Act 2017. And for the national regulatory picture, see our overview of e-waste laws and regulations across Australia.