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Thanks to eDay, there is hope for New Zealand’s track record with electronic waste …

“Reduce, re-use and recycle” is the mantra of environmentalist world over. While this is a way of life for some, most of society have adopted “replace” as our mantra – updating and replacing household goods at a rate faster than any time in human history.

We are a society influenced by consumerism. We are a throw-away society with little regard for how this “throw-away” culture impacts our environment.

Our quest for the latest gadgets has resulted in electronic waste (e-waste) becoming the fastest growing waste stream in the world.

But, what do we do with these “unwanted” things? The CRT monitor that was replaced by a flat screen or the old mobile phone replaced by an i-phone.

According to www.e-takeback.org, 133,000 PCs are discarded in the United States every day.

Locally, it’s not much better. The New Zealand Government estimates that there are 80,000 tonnes of electronic waste disposed of into landfills in New Zealand per year.

Landfill seems to be where our unwanted goods, our e-waste, ends up.

The problem here is that many of these electronic products contain toxic substances such as lead and mercury. Computers also contain approximately 15 percent glass which never decomposes. And it’s not just the nasty stuff that is buried in the ground – there are precious metals found in a computer such as gold and copper.

With that many computers being sent to landfill, it is important that equipment is re-used or recycled wherever possible.

Following the mantra, re-use should be considered as a first priority. There are some good re-use options in New Zealand –  www.trademe.co.nz, www.donatenz.com, www.salvationarmy.org.nz are just a few.

If there is no re-use value – then recycle. Recycling e-waste enables the recovery and reuse of valuable materials and ensures toxic materials are not buried in our landfills. However this is where New Zealanders become stuck – the options to recycle are limited.

The once a year community event, eDay, is one option. eDay is a drive-through recycling event which provides household, schools, small business and community organisations the opportunity to drop-off their old computer equipment and mobile phones for safe recycling, at no cost.

Since eDay’s inception in 2007, approximately 40,000 cars have dropped off 196,000 items of computer and computer-related waste for safe recycling, diverting 2,337 tonnes of e-waste from landfills.

Despite these results, as a long term solution, the organisers (eDay New Zealand Trust) advocate for compulsory product stewardship and still say eDay is just an interim measure until this is in place. They lobby for legislation where manufacturers build in the cost of recycling to new products.

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This model has been hugely successful in Europe under the WEEE Directive. The directive imposes the responsibility for the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) on the manufacturers of such equipment. Those companies must establish an infrastructure for collecting WEEE, in such a way that “Users of electrical and electronic equipment from private households should have the possibility
of returning WEEE free of charge”. Also, the companies are compelled to use the collected waste in an ecologically-friendly manner, either by safe recycling or by reuse/refurbishment.

Such regulation, however, is not on the agenda of the current New Zealand Government. And while they are taking steps in the right direction by funding eDay 2010 and new community e-waste recycling facilities, we need an NZ version of the WEEE Directive to see a real, positive difference in the amount of this stuff going to landfill.

So until similar legislation is in place, take your e-waste to eDay. It’s helping to buy New Zealand a little more time without generating new problems in our landfills.

eDay will run from 9am–3pm this Saturday 6 November. There are over 50 drop-off locations across the country. See www.eday.org.nz

By Lara Charles.

Tags: recycling, resusing, technology