Tonnes of e-waste salvaged in second national eDay

Clockwise from top: Dunedin volunteers; Wanaka: Frank Ibanez, Jeremy Bisson and Sandy Easton;...
Clockwise from top: Dunedin volunteers; Wanaka: Frank Ibanez, Jeremy Bisson and Sandy Easton; Central Otago: Mitchael Robertson, Deirdre Pollard and driver Simon McKay in Alexandra; Aaron Smith (15) in Dunedin. Photos: Craig Baxter, Diane Brown, Felicity Wolfe.
Otago residents joined others around New Zealand on Saturday, doing their bit to clear homes of more than 900 tonnes of old computer equipment and mobile phones.

The second national eDay, an event organised by the Computer Access New Zealand Trust (Canz), had drop-off centres in Wanaka, Queenstown, Alexandra and Dunedin busy taking more than 85,000 computer items including monitors, central processing units and printers, weighing a total of 926 tonnes, to be diverted from landfills.

In Dunedin, 904 cars - one car every 30 seconds - dropped off just under 60 tonnes of waste, including 992 monitors, meaning just under 1500kg of lead has been diverted from landfills.

It was the first time the event has been held in Dunedin, and organiser Roslyn Saunders said she was delighted with the positive response from the public and sponsors.

Dunedin City Council waste strategy officer Catherine Broad said she hoped the day would be held again next year, and that it would be unnecessary in two to three years if legislation was implemented to ensure manufacturers reused or recycled their products.

Alexandra and surrounding districts made the most of the event despite the presence of wind and rain.

Central Otago WasteBusters, in Alexandra, and other waste stations in the district have been collecting e-waste all year but Saturday was the last day for the year's collection.

Manager Karen Noble was pleased with the turnout, and said some people had brought in two or three computers each.

Cellphones were also collected, and e-waste co-ordinator Deirdre Pollard said she had found some phones that were still working perfectly: one was still switched on and operating.

National eDay co-ordinator Laurence Zwimpfer said e-waste and its toxic materials, including lead and mercury from old computers, was globally the fastest growing type of waste, and much of it ended up in landfills.

A recent survey conducted by Canz for the Ministry for the Environment estimated more than 16 million electronic devices (computers and televisions) were being used in New Zealand, and nearly one million were added each year.

Equipment collected on eDay was sorted at each drop-off site before being transported to Auckland where monitors will be tested for possible reuse and other equipment will be sent to South Korea for recycling.

Reporting by straff reporters.

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