Old TVs, computers, phones, printers and batteries can’t legally go in your kerbside bin in South Australia, and from 2026 the landfill ban tightens further. The fastest options for most Adelaide households are: drop small electronics at Officeworks (free), drop batteries at Battery World or Bunnings (free), use your council’s e-waste collection day, or book a paid pickup if you’ve got a bulk load like an old CRT TV, multiple monitors or a full office clean-out.

We deal with this stuff every week — from single-item collections in Norwood to full server room strip-outs in the CBD — and this guide covers every option we’d actually recommend, plus the traps that catch people out.

What counts as e-waste in South Australia

E-waste is anything with a plug, a cord, or a battery that’s reached end of life. Under SA’s Environment Protection (Waste to Resources) Policy, a growing list of electronic items is banned from landfill, which means they can’t go in your red-lid bin and they can’t be tipped at a transfer station with general waste.

The items we see most often:

Televisions (LCD, LED, plasma and the dreaded old CRT sets)
Desktop computers, laptops, tablets and monitors
Printers, scanners, fax machines and photocopiers
Mobile phones, chargers, cables and routers
Kitchen appliances with electronics (microwaves, air fryers, coffee machines)
Power tools and their batteries
Small white goods and vacuum cleaners
Lithium and lead-acid batteries of any size

The 2026 expansion of the landfill ban — part of SA’s wider push toward a circular economy — adds more categories including most small appliances and lighting. If something has a battery or a circuit board, assume it’s banned and treat it accordingly.

A useful rule of thumb we use on the trucks: if it ever needed power to work, it’s e-waste. That includes the cables, the remote and the dusty charger in the bottom drawer.

Free drop-off points across Adelaide

For small loads, free is the right answer. There are more options than most people realise.

Officeworks

Every Officeworks store in metro Adelaide takes back a long list of small electronics for free, no purchase required. They accept laptops, tablets, phones, cables, computer accessories, printer cartridges, small printers, batteries and old chargers. They don’t take TVs or large monitors. Stores at Mile End, Marion, Modbury, Munno Para and Kent Town all have collection bins near the front entrance.

Battery World and Bunnings

Both chains take household batteries — AA, AAA, button cells, 9V, lithium-ion, power tool packs and even car batteries (Battery World only). Bunnings stores have B-cycle collection units at the entrance. This is the safest option for lithium-ion batteries, which we’ll cover separately below.

MobileMuster

For mobile phones and accessories, MobileMuster runs free postage-paid satchels and has drop-off points in most Telstra, Optus and Vodafone stores, plus participating Australia Post outlets. They strip phones for materials and securely destroy data-bearing components.

Council e-waste collection events

Most Adelaide councils run free e-waste drop-off days throughout the year. These are the easiest way to clear larger items without booking a removalist:

City of Burnside — quarterly e-waste days at the depot on Greenhill Road
City of Unley — runs combined e-waste and hard waste collection events
City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters — regular drop-off days for residents
City of Charles Sturt — annual e-waste collection plus year-round battery bins at the civic centre
City of Marion — drop-off days at the operations centre on Newland Avenue
Adelaide Hills Council — uses Heathfield Resource Recovery Centre for residents
City of Onkaparinga — multiple drop-off events across the southern suburbs each year

Check your council’s website for the next event — most require proof of residency (a recent rates notice or driver’s licence). Quantities are usually capped at what fits in a car boot, so a full garage clear-out is generally too much for a council day.

Transfer stations that accept e-waste

If you need to drop off outside event days, several transfer stations in metro Adelaide and the Hills accept e-waste year-round. Fees vary, but TVs and monitors are almost always charged separately to general electronics:

Wingfield Waste & Recycling Centre — accepts most e-waste, charges per item for TVs/monitors
Heathfield Resource Recovery Centre — handles the Hills catchment
Edinburgh Parks Recycling Centre — services northern Adelaide
Pedler’s Creek Landfill (Onkaparinga) — accepts e-waste from the south
Northern Adelaide Waste Management Authority (NAWMA) facilities — Edinburgh North and Uleybury

Call ahead before you load the car. Some sites only take e-waste from local council ratepayers, some won’t accept commercial quantities without a booking, and pricing for CRT TVs in particular changes regularly.

Old TVs and CRT monitors — the trickiest items

If we had to pick the single most-dropped-off-by-the-side-of-the-road item in Adelaide, it would be the old CRT TV. They’re heavy, they’re full of leaded glass, and almost no charity will touch them. We collect at least one a week from front yards in Prospect, Walkerville and the inner west where someone has clearly tried and failed to give one away.

Your options for a CRT or rear-projection TV:

Council e-waste day — usually accepted, sometimes with a one-per-household limit
Transfer station with e-waste handling — expect to pay $20-$50 per set
Paid pickup — worth it if you’ve got more than one, or if you also have other rubbish to clear

Modern flat-screens (LCD, LED, OLED) are lighter and easier to handle, but still banned from landfill. Smashed screens are a particular problem because they’re sharp and can leak — wrap any broken TV in a blanket or sheet of cardboard before moving it.

If you’re clearing a whole house, our hard rubbish removal service handles old TVs alongside furniture and general junk in one pickup, which usually works out cheaper than multiple tip trips once you factor in fuel and time.

Lithium battery safety — this is the one to take seriously

We’re going to spend a bit more time here because lithium battery fires in waste trucks and recycling facilities have become a serious problem nationally. SA Water, EPA and the local resource recovery sector have all flagged it. We’ve personally seen smoke come out of a truck bin in Adelaide after a hidden vape went through the compactor.

The risk: lithium-ion cells (in phones, laptops, e-scooters, vapes, power tools, e-bikes and many cordless appliances) can short-circuit if punctured or crushed, and once they go they burn at over 500°C and can re-ignite hours later. They’ve caused warehouse fires across Australia, including at major MRF (materials recovery facility) sites.

What to do before dropping batteries off:

Tape the terminals with non-conductive tape (electrical or sticky tape works) on any battery still capable of holding charge — especially 9V batteries, which can short on a metal surface
Bag damaged or swollen batteries in a sealed plastic bag, and don’t keep them indoors for long
Never put any battery in your kerbside bin — yellow, red or green. This is the single biggest cause of recycling truck fires
Drop them at a B-cycle point (Bunnings, Officeworks, Battery World, many councils) rather than letting them pile up at home

For e-bikes, e-scooters and large power tool packs that won’t fit a drop-off bin, ring the retailer you bought from — most have take-back arrangements. If not, we can collect them as part of a larger pickup.

Bulk business and office e-waste

The free options work well for households but fall over fast for businesses. A small office refresh — say, ten staff getting new laptops and monitors — produces more e-waste than any drop-off bin can handle, and most transfer stations charge commercial rates that add up quickly when you’ve also got old chairs, filing cabinets and partitioning to clear.

This is where a booked pickup makes sense. Our office rubbish removal team can clear a CBD office floor or a Mile End warehouse in a single visit, sort the e-waste from general rubbish on the truck, and deliver everything banned from landfill to a licensed e-waste processor. You get one invoice, one Certificate of Destruction (if you need data wiping documentation), and the building manager doesn’t get a phone call about a pile of monitors in the loading dock.

Typical bulk e-waste jobs we handle:

Office IT refreshes (10-200+ devices)
Server room decommissioning
Retail fit-out strip-outs with POS systems, security cameras and signage
Medical clinic clear-outs (these have specific data and biohazard handling needs)
Educational facilities clearing labs of older computers

For mixed loads — say, an office that’s also throwing out furniture and a kitchen fit-out — combining e-waste with a full junk removal booking almost always works out cheaper than splitting the job between two specialists.

Data destruction before you let it go

This one catches small businesses out constantly. Dropping an old computer at Officeworks doesn’t mean the data on the hard drive disappears. It usually goes to a licensed recycler who’ll wipe or shred drives, but you’ve got no documentation and no chain of custody.

For anything that held customer data, financial records, employee files or anything covered under the Privacy Act, you’ve got three options:

Wipe drives yourself using a tool like DBAN (for old spinning drives) or the manufacturer’s secure erase function (for SSDs). Then drop the gear anywhere.
Remove and physically destroy the drive before disposal. A hammer and a Phillips head screwdriver is the low-tech version. Keep the casing — it goes to e-waste — and bin the destroyed platters separately.
Use a service that provides a Certificate of Destruction — these document serial numbers, wipe method and date, and are what auditors want to see.

For homes, the risk is lower but real. We’ve seen old laptops sold at garage sales with full email accounts and saved passwords intact. Five minutes resetting a device to factory settings before it leaves the house saves a lot of headaches.

How councils, charities and us fit together

People often ask us why they should pay for a pickup when councils and charities exist. The honest answer: for one item, you usually shouldn’t. Drop it off, use the free options, save your money.

Where paid pickup earns its keep:

You’ve got a CRT TV and no car big enough to move it
You’re clearing a deceased estate or a full garage and don’t want to make six tip trips
You’re a business with quantities that exceed council limits
You need a same-week solution and the next council e-waste day is two months away
You’re combining e-waste with furniture, green waste or general rubbish in one job

We service every metro Adelaide council area — Adelaide City, Burnside, Unley, Norwood Payneham & St Peters, Walkerville, Prospect, Campbelltown, Charles Sturt, Port Adelaide Enfield, Tea Tree Gully, Salisbury, Playford, West Torrens, Marion, Mitcham, Holdfast Bay, Onkaparinga and the Adelaide Hills. We sort on the truck, separate e-waste, and deliver it to licensed recyclers — not landfill.

If you’ve got a load of electronics, a CRT TV that’s been sitting in the shed for years, or an office refresh coming up, give us a call on 0480 845 643 or send through an enquiry and we’ll quote on the spot. Most single-item and small-load jobs we can do same-day or next-day across the metro area.

Quick reference: where to take what

Mobile phones — MobileMuster (telco stores, Australia Post) or Officeworks
Laptops, tablets, small electronics — Officeworks (free)
All batteries — Bunnings, Officeworks, Battery World (free)
TVs (modern flat-screen) — Council e-waste day or transfer station
CRT TVs and old monitors — Transfer station (fee) or paid pickup
Printers and cartridges — Officeworks or Cartridges 4 Planet Ark drop-off
Power tools and batteries — Bunnings B-cycle bins
Bulk office or commercial e-waste — Book a pickup
Anything mixed with furniture or rubbish — One pickup beats five tip trips

E-waste rules will keep tightening in SA over the next few years — the 2026 landfill ban expansion is part of a longer trajectory toward a fully circular system. The good news is the free options are getting better and more widespread. The bad news is that “throwing it in the bin and hoping” stops working entirely. Plan five minutes ahead, pick the right drop-off, and old electronics become genuinely easy to deal with.

E-Waste Disposal in Adelaide: Every Option for Old TVs, Computers and Batteries