E-Waste (Mixed)
ScrapTrade's E-Waste category is a real, live-priced material, but it's built for pre-sorted bulk volume from recyclers and IT businesses, not a household's drawer of old devices. Here's what actually qualifies, and where the rest should go instead.
ScrapTrade prices E-Waste as mixed electronics, circuit boards, and cables, pre-sort. That last part matters: this category covers material after the initial dismantling has already happened, batteries, casings, and screens separated out, leaving the boards, cables, and component-level electronics that a recycler is actually set up to process for their metal content.
It's a genuinely different stream from a whole, intact device still in its housing. A working or broken laptop, phone, or monitor hasn't been through that dismantling step yet, and belongs somewhere else first, covered in detail below. Screens and monitors specifically are usually excluded even after dismantling, they carry their own separate handling requirements, older units may contain leaded glass or mercury backlighting, and aren't part of this category's scope.
E-waste regulation genuinely varies by state, worth knowing regardless of which side of a transaction you're on. South Australia banned e-waste from landfill back in 2013, the earliest of any state. Victoria followed with its own ban in 2019, and Western Australia introduced a comprehensive e-waste-to-landfill ban in 2024. New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory don't currently have a dedicated e-waste landfill ban, though proper recycling remains the better option everywhere regardless of what's technically permitted.
For businesses generating e-waste at real volume, particularly in a banned state, that's a genuine compliance reason to move pre-sorted material through a proper channel rather than general waste, on top of the straightforward commercial reason that it has real recoverable value.
If you've got one old laptop, phone, or a box of household electronics, the right path is Australia's National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme, a free, government-backed program running since 2011 that collects and recycles roughly 70,000 tonnes of e-waste a year through drop-off points around the country. Most councils also run their own e-waste collection, often alongside general kerbside recycling.
ScrapTrade's E-Waste category is aimed at a different scale entirely, recyclers and IT businesses who've already processed genuine volume down to boards, cables, and components. That's the same "right tool for the right scale" distinction that applies to PET bottles and container deposit schemes, or aluminium cans and kerbside collection.
ScrapTrade's live-priced E-Waste (Mixed) category covers pre-sorted circuit boards, cables, and mixed electronic components. Batteries are handled separately given their distinct chemistry and safety requirements, see our Battery Scrap guide for household, automotive, and industrial batteries, or our guide on how EV and lithium battery recycling actually works specifically for the chemistry side.
Check today's E-Waste priceE-waste volume tracks corporate IT turnover and industrial electronics use more than any single sector. Sydney, home to the country's largest concentration of corporate head offices and IT infrastructure, generates a steady stream of e-waste through routine device refresh cycles and data centre decommissioning. Perth's resources and mining sector runs extensive monitoring, control, and communications electronics across its operations, a genuinely different but equally real source of bulk e-waste volume tied to WA's broader industrial base.
Neither city is a requirement. IT asset disposal businesses and electronics recyclers generate this material anywhere in Australia, and ScrapTrade connects buyers and sellers nationally regardless of where a listing is posted from.
Circuit boards carry a genuine concentration of precious and base metals in their connectors and circuitry, gold, silver, palladium, and copper among them. Commercially mined gold ore typically yields somewhere around 5 to 10 grams per tonne, while a tonne of computer circuit boards can carry several times that concentration, which is exactly why circuit board recycling gets described as "urban mining," recovering genuinely concentrated value from processed material rather than digging it out of the ground. Our urban mining guide covers the broader trend this fits into. Cables carry their own straightforward value too, insulated copper wiring pulled from decommissioned equipment and IT infrastructure, similar in principle to the copper recovered from any other insulated cable stream, just sourced from electronics rather than construction or demolition work.
E-waste's value is genuinely harder for a non-specialist to estimate than a simple metal grade, which makes an opaque, take-it-or-leave-it offer easier for a buyer to justify. On ScrapTrade, you check a live reference price first, then list your pre-sorted load at a fixed price, run it as a live auction so verified buyers compete for it, or negotiate directly, negotiation is on by default on every listing. Every listing is GPS-video verified before it goes live, and payment sits in escrow from the moment a deal is confirmed until pickup or delivery is done, so neither side is exposed first. The full case for why that beats a single yard quote is on Why Choose ScrapTrade and Trust & Safety.
Not really, that's the wrong scale for this category. ScrapTrade's E-Waste listing is aimed at pre-sorted bulk volume from recycling and IT asset disposal businesses. A single device is better handled through Australia's free National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme drop-off points, or your local council's e-waste collection.
It means the initial dismantling work, separating batteries, casings, screens, and other components from the boards and cables themselves, has already happened before the material is listed. ScrapTrade's E-Waste category covers that processed stream, circuit boards, cables, and mixed electronics components, not whole intact devices still in their housings.
No, batteries are handled as a genuinely separate stream with their own safety and chemistry considerations. See our Battery Scrap guide for where household, automotive, and industrial batteries actually belong, this category is specifically boards, cables, and non-battery electronics.
They carry a genuine concentration of precious and base metals, gold, silver, palladium, and copper, used in the connectors and circuitry. Gold ore mined commercially typically yields somewhere around 5 to 10 grams per tonne, while a tonne of computer circuit boards can carry several times that concentration, which is exactly why circuit board recycling gets called "urban mining."
It depends where you are. South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia have implemented e-waste landfill bans, South Australia's has been in place since 2013. NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory don't currently have a dedicated ban, though proper recycling is still the better option everywhere.
IT asset disposal (ITAD) businesses, e-waste recyclers, and electronics recycling operators consolidating genuine pre-sorted volume. Corporate device refresh cycles and data centre decommissioning are common sources at that scale.
Yes, E-Waste (Mixed) is one of ScrapTrade's live-priced calculator materials. Check today's reference price before you list or accept an offer on a pre-sorted load.
Check a live price, then sell at a fixed price, run an auction, or negotiate directly.
Get Started Free