Sunday May 1 2011 marked a new era in Nelson waste recycling with the opening of an e-Cycle depot at the Nelson ReUse and Recycle Centre (NRRC).
The e-Cycle service which is being rolled out nationwide will provide year-round recycling of electronic waste.
There will be a charge for people dropping off old computers, televisions and other e-waste to cover the costs of safe and responsible recycling. These costs include labour, freight, the use of dismantling equipment and other logistics costs.
Nelson Environment Centre’s waste manager Karen Driver, who has been working on the project for 18 months, hailed its launch in Nelson: “It’s doing something positive. It’s dealing with a problem that we need to deal with. There are so many valuable items in all electronics, it is madness to be throwing them away.”
Karen said the new service is likely to replace eDay which has been free.
“We think the people who make and sell the products should pay for the recycling” she said. “We’d love to see producer responsibility in the electronics industry”.
“If producers had to pay for recycling of their products, then they would have an incentive to make their products last longer, be upgradable and reduce toxic materials used. As it is now, their only incentive is to sell more appliances and make more profits and the consumer has the problem of disposing of the equipment at the end of its life”.
E-waste is the fastest growing type of waste in the world (estimated at 80,000 tonnes per year in NZ) and is more toxic than normal household rubbish.
More information on the service can be found on the e-Cycle website
