The inconvenient truth about gadgets
Blogger: eDay Communications Manager, Lara Charles
“Reduce, re-use and recycle” is an environmental mantra the 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 geared towards rampant consumerism – and while we’re more aware of how to recycle our plastic bottles, takeaway boxes and newspapers, if you quiz someone on the recyclable elements in their computer they’d probably draw a blank.
Some of the computers collected from last year's e-day.
This is rather worrying given our insatiable quest for the latest gadget du jour. Our landfills are awash with near-new computers, play-stations, x-boxes, crt monitors and ‘steam-powered’ mobile phones.
Everyday there’s an e-nami of new gizmos landing on our shores. This has resulted in electronic waste (e-waste) becoming the fastest growing waste stream in the world.
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 there are 80,000 tonnes of electronic waste disposed of into landfills in New Zealand per year.
Pull some of your gadgets apart and you’d find a bounty of recyclable elements.
Here’s some facts –
- The plastic on cell-phones can be recycled into new products such as garden furniture, non-food containers and replacement automotive parts. Due to its high thermal value, the plastic could alternatively be used as a fuel.
- Our computers are filled with precious metals such as gold and copper which can be re-purposed or re-used. The recovered metals in cell-phones can be used to make car parts, plumbing faucets and piping, and gold or silvery jewellery.
- Computers also contain approximately 15 percent glass which never decomposes.
Other less benign elements can be found in electronic equipment, such as lead and mercury. Recycling e-waste allows these elements to be disposed of safely – rather than letting them leach into the soils of our landfills which may lead to environmental or health problems.
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 annual 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, 196,000 items of computer and computer-related waste has been dropped off for safe recycling, diverting 2,337 tonnes of e-waste from landfills.
Despite these results, as a long term solution, we believe (eDay New Zealand Trust) eDay is an stop-gap measure. Lobbying for legislation that makes manufacturers become responsible for the disposal of their goods by including the cost of recycling into the final price is our end-goal.
This model has been hugely successful in Europe under the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive. Electronic manufacturers must establish an infrastructure for collecting e-waste, in such a way that “users of electrical and electronic equipment from private households should have the possibility of returning WEEE free of charge”.
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 our Government’s agenda. 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 our landfills.
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
