Chance to dispose of e-waste
Waipa people are being encouraged to take part in a familyfriendly, one-off community collection day for e-waste.
As households’ use of electronic products continues to intensify, so does the amount of old, disused devices needing to be disposed of, including computers, TVs, mobile phones and household appliances.
The collection will be held in Te Awamutu. The town’s community board and Waipa District Council are working together to support the event.
It will accept any electronics with plugs or batteries that people would like to drop off, for a small fee of $5 or $10 depending on the item. Smaller equipment such as a computer mouse, electric jug or mobile phone will be free to hand over.
Council’s waste minimisation officer Sally Fraser said the small fee was required because the e-waste had to undergo more processing than the standard recycling which gets collected from homes.
‘‘With e-waste, all the really precious materials like the copper and the gold and all that is actually usually melded in small amounts to other, less valuable products that are plastics or other different materials, so it’s very hard to get them out,’’ Fraser said.
She preferred that the process be referred to as recovery, rather than recycling, because the resources are often used to allow the creation of completely different products.
The task will be performed by South Waikato Achievement Trust, which will recover 95 per cent of the weight of the items.
By comparison, in the case of recycled glass bottles, they are usually made back into the same object again.
‘‘There are some parts that can’t be recovered, so there is some residual waste,’’ Fraser said.
‘‘Because of that residual waste, all of that stuff has to go to a Class A landfill, which is the highest class of landfill in New Zealand, so there’s that kind of cost.’’
The collection day will be on March 3, at 214 Churchill Street, Te Awamutu, behind the events centre.
There will also be free kids’ recycling activities, plus people who bring an e-waste item along will receive a free coffee.
For more information about what electronics can we recovered and the cost, visit waipadc.govt.nz/e-waste