This Saturday the Mayor of Hamilton Julie Hardacker will be present at the Open Celebration day for Xtreme Waste’s new e-Cycle facility to handle Hamilton’s electronic waste, or e-waste.
E-waste which includes old computers and televisions is one of the world’s fastest growing and most toxic waste streams, and the Ministry for the Environment estimates that 80,000 tonnes of e-waste enters New Zealand landfills each year.
“In working in the recycling industry e-waste has been the most frustrating material to deal with, and it feels criminal to put it into landfill. Not only do we pass on a toxic legacy to those who will live in this land after us by throwing some 8,000 tonnes of lead plus other water-mobile heavy-metals such as cadmium and lithium into New Zealand landfills each year, but we lose rare and important materials from the cycles of manufacturing. Each item that ends up in landfill means someone’s backyard has to be turned into a mine,” said site manager Simon Thomson.
Over the last two years Xtreme Waste with other members of the Community Recycling Network (CRN) have been working with Auckland based company RCN Group to develop a network of, electronic or e-waste drop-off centres throughout New Zealand, and to build processing facilities for TV’s and CRT screens in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
This project has been funded by the Waste Minimisation Fund administered through the Ministry for the Environment, and its goal is to provide an every-day permanent solution for both the public and the businesses of New Zealand to ethically deal with their e-waste instead of the old annual ‘eDay’ events which catered only to the public and schools.
The new Frankton facility which opened in January is operated with support from Hamilton City Council and seeks to build both New Zealand based employment and the infrastructure to manage much of our e-waste processing on-shore, rather than exporting the harm to other countries. This infrastructure is building towards Product Stewardship legislation that will drive towards the Cradle-to-Cradle concepts of modern industrial ecology and design.
“Xtreme Waste acknowledges the support of the Raglan community in giving birth to projects that have both local and national impact. We invite you to join the Open Day celebrations of this new site, and maybe continue on to catch highlight of the Balloons Over Waikato festival with the Balloon Glow Show that night…” said Thomson.
Saturday 31st March:
– e-Cycle Celebration Event. From 10am at 8A Jolly Street, Frankton. 847-3800 –
– Live Music and orchestrated Balloon Glow Show with fireworks finale. From 4-9pm at the University of Waikato –
