A Victorian Labor MP has been slammed for dumping 18kg of promotional e-waste, with a recycling centre accusing her office of “clogging up landfills”.

Bendigo E-Waste took to Facebook on Wednesday, claiming a “tub and two boxes full” of individually wrapped promotional keychain torches had been dumped at its facility.

The keyrings belonged to the office of Victorian Labor MP and Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas and are understood to be from more than a decade ago.

“We couldn’t pick a tagline for this idiocracy so here’s our favourites … Reduce. Reuse. Rethink,” the centre wrote on Wednesday.

“Even if you’re in Parliament, political merchandise shouldn’t come with an environmental hangover.

“We love a good reuse story — but ‘make it → hand it out → throw it away → send it to the e-waste guys’ probably isn’t the circular economy we’re aiming for.”

A staffer for Ms Thomas responded, claiming the torches dated back to 2015 and the batteries were “all flat”.

“These are the last of many that we have donated and given away, we recycled them as they all have button batteries in them and are not safe to put in general waste,” she added.

“Mary-Anne is retiring and these are not usable.”

But Bendigo E-Waste hit back, claiming its own testing found the batteries were not, in fact, all flat.

The centre then slammed the MP’s office for “clogging up landfills”.

“We wanted to bring awareness to the issue of promotional waste and its impacts,” it added.

“We see promotional waste daily; this is our first time receiving such a large quantity in one go, but I think it’s important to highlight an issue like this.

“This waste isn’t intended for long-term use; it’s low-quality throwaway products like this that are clogging up our landfills.

“It’s estimated that 50-80 per cent of promotional materials become waste, approximately 20.5 million tonnes of promotional waste in Australia alone.”

Millions of electronic devices, including televisions, computers and mobile phones, are thrown away in Australia each year, according to environmental organisation Clean Up.

The Global E-Waste Monitor 2024 found the volume of e-waste generated worldwide is increasing by 2.6 million tonnes annually and is on track to reach 82 million tonnes by 2030.

Clean Up says limiting the amount of technology purchased is the most effective way to reduce e-waste.

A spokesperson for the Victorian government said they encourage all Victorians to safely dispose of e-waste by using appropriate recycling facilities.

“People shouldn’t be shamed for doing the right thing and safely disposing of old electronic items that can no longer be used,” they said.