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Untreated sewage and viruses in Guanabara Bay have led UN to advise athletes to spend as little time in the water as possible

There can be few more beautiful city sights in the world than that from the Marina da Gloria, where the Rio 2016 Olympic sailing events will be launched this weekend.

Look out from the quayside across Guanabara Bay and the panorama takes in Sugarloaf mountain, the Niteroi bridge and the distant hills of the Serra dos Orgãos national park, while behind you are the palm trees of Flamengo Park and the state of Christ the Redeemer.

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The Brexit campaign pivoted around migration but its politicians are sceptical of action on global warming that is a key driver of displacement

What happens as large-scale migration becomes inevitable due to a combination of environmental, economic and humanitarian reasons? Do we tackle the drivers and help the displaced, or worsen conditions causing the displacement and reject responsibility for those affected?

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BusinessGreen: New study concludes there is ‘no overall relationship’ between tourism employment in an area and the deployment of onshore windfarms

“Repels tourists” can now be added to the long list of criticism levelled at onshore windfarms that has been shown to be unfounded.

A new report by consultancy BiGGAR Economics, which analysed the impact of Scottish windfarms on tourism-related employment in an area, this week concluded there was no evidence to suggest windfarms had an adverse effect on tourism in an area.

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You may have a game plan for your ideal Premier League team, but every player comes at a price. Using real market value, create your dream team from the European leagues’ top 50 and see how your squad plays out

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Professor Brian Cox talks to the BBC about how why science can give us hope in a turbulent world.

BNEF report says poorly functioning gas market main cause of SA power price spike, blaming renewables "erroneous and simplistic."

Aberaeron, Ceredigion The route was almost deserted, so the sensation of being watched was unexpected

Even on the open slopes above the cliff, the air was hot and humid, making the steeper sections of the coast path seem more of a trudge than usual. South of Aberaeron, in west Wales, the route was almost deserted – so the sensation of being watched was unexpected.

As I struggled past a tangled mass of gorse, I realised that I was being observed by a stonechat perched on a bracken frond. My plodding approach hadn’t alarmed him enough to make him retreat and as I returned his gaze I realised that at least three others, perhaps a family, were nearby. They began to exchange the sharply characteristic calls that sound uncannily like two pebbles being tapped together, and which give the species its name.

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SA Power Networks proposal to charge rooftop solar customers up to $100 a year more for grid access has again been rejected by the Australian Energy Regulator.

Origin Energy bets that the solar market will be dominated by business demand in coming years, while households wait for battery storage costs to come down.

China's wind power capacity has reached 140GW, while total solar capacity has jumped by nearly half to 65GW.

Ross Garnaut says grid-scale battery storage ready to apply as "immediate answer" to Australia's energy network problems.

The New York Public Service Commission has approved the state’s Clean Energy Standard, which requires that utilities procure 50% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.

Emily Voigt devoted three years of her life and visited fifteen countries in search of the rare Asian arowana.

Two Amur snow leopards - believed to be the world's rarest big cat - are born at Twycross Zoo.

COOK'S CHOOKS: The first domestic chickens in New Zealand were likely set loose there by Captain James Cook and his crew.

Price rise in LGC market halted in July - less a result of the renewed anti-renewables campaign and more reflection of fact that spot market sitting within $7 of the scheme’s cap.

The estimated 1,273 GWh of power generated by solar during July was two-thirds higher than the 778 GWh output from coal in May 2016, highlighting the major changes going on in the UK electricity system.

JinkoSolar signs three PPAs with CFE for the three projects totaling 188MWac that was awarded in April 2016 under Mexico’s first long term electricity auction.

US study overturns perceptions about poorer homes by showing higher income houses host up to 200 different species of flies, spiders, beetles and ants

Homes in wealthier areas harbour more bugs, containing up to 200 different species of flies, spiders, beetles and ants, according to new research. The vast majority are not pests although dust mites and book lice were also common.

The finding is the latest demonstration of the “luxury effect” which has shown that richer neighbourhoods are more biologically diverse in plants, birds, bats and lizards, largely thanks to the greater number and variety of plants in gardens and parks. But it is the first time the effect has been shown for arthropods, either inside or outside homes.

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Australia is lagging far behind other rich countries in dealing with the growing mountain of “e-waste” from discarded electrical and electronic products.

My research, carried out with my student Ashleigh Morris, shows that in comparison with leading nations like Japan and Switzerland, Australia’s management of e-waste is ineffective and poorly implemented. This means that precious metals are not being recycled and hazardous materials are going into landfill instead of being properly dealt with.

E-waste is growing in Australia. Fewer than 1% of televisions and around 10% of computers and laptops are recycled, while the consumer-driven culture and planned obsolescence of many electronic products have resulted in millions of tonnes of e-waste entering the waste stream.

Computers, televisions, smartphones, washing machines, air-conditioners, freezers, hairdryers, electric toothbrushes, vacuum cleaners – the list is huge.

Lots of e-waste contains valuable (and finite) metals such as gold, indium and palladium, as well as hazardous ones like lead, arsenic and mercury. Sending it to landfill is not just a threat to the environment – it’s also a significant waste of valuable resources.

Despite this, many Australians still throw their e-waste into their general waste wheelie bin. Their local council then takes the bin’s contents to landfill.

Those who do make an effort to recycle their e-waste face the challenge of not knowing which products can be recycled and where. The services on offer vary greatly between different local governments, and not everyone is within reach of a drop-off point.

Contrast that with Switzerland, which recycles 16 times more e-waste per person than Australia, recouping 75% of recoverable material. Recycling and recovery targets have been subject to significant debate in Australia, yet the Swiss system doesn’t have targets.

Recycling targets are pointless without measures to ensure that e-waste is properly handled and audited. Both Switzerland and Japan (another nation that performs impressively on e-waste) have multiple levels of independent controls to ensure recycling companies maintain high environmental and quality standards, and to check for theft or “free-riding” – companies that refuse to comply with recycling regulations.

If we want Australian households and businesses to take e-waste seriously, we first have to put some serious systems in place to handle the problem.

Fixing the problem

My research has identified five key issues faced by the Australian system:

• recycling laws don’t cover the full scope of e-waste

• poor services and public engagement

• outdated recycling and recovery targets

• weak auditing and compliance measures

• neglect of key stakeholders such as local governments.

Local governments are crucial here: they manage the most e-waste and have the closest and most influential relationship with the public when it comes to recycling. But they are neglected in the system, receiving no direct funding for the collection, recycling, and recovery of e-waste.

Meanwhile, there is no responsibility on consumers to recycle their e-waste. This reinforces the “out of sight, out of mind” attitude that many Australians have to their rubbish.

Another key problem is that recycling legislation does not even mention many types of e-waste. Televisions and computers have a dedicated national recycling collection scheme, but millions of other items simply end up in landfill or are shipped illegally to developing countries.

Hazardous materials are some of the most attractive items to ship illegally, because they tend to have the highest recycling costs. This problem threatens to undermine Australia’s obligations under the Basel Convention, which outlaws the unauthorised international shipping of hazardous waste.

If Australia is to be effective in managing e-waste, it needs to expand its National Waste Policy to include the recovery and recycling of a much wider range of electrical products. It needs better compliance and auditing. Key players such as local governments must be given the power to manage e-waste much more responsibly.

That would be a good start. Of course, to get right to the heart of the issue, Australia ultimately needs to move away from the linear “take, make, dispose” economic model, and embrace the circular economy.

As you finish reading this article on your phone, tablet or laptop, have a look at it and ask yourself where it will be in a few years' time. Let’s hope it’s not in your local landfill.

This article was co-written by Ashleigh Morris, an honours student in environmental management at UNSW Australia.

Graciela Metternicht receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the NSW Environmental Trust