Waitaki residents took the opportunity to beat a price rise and handed in 145 old television sets in 15 days to be sent away for recycling by the Waitaki Resource Recovery Centre in Oamaru.
The park's business manager, Dave Clare, warned on April 16 the cost of handing back unwanted sets would rise from $25 to $40 from May 1 throughout New Zealand.
The result was a major response at the Oamaru, Hampden and Palmerston recycling centres, with the 145 televisions brought in well above the four to six normally handed in over a two-week period.
''We managed to get more than we expected out of the district with the warning of the price rise,'' he said.
Since the price rise on May 1, Mr Clare had not seen any televisions handed in.
The TV sets that beat the price rise would be packaged and sent to the recycler this month, who had committed to receive them for $25.
The response to beating the price rise reflected the district's success in last year's TV TakeBack scheme, part of the introduction of digital television, when the resource recovery centre had to get a larger allocation for the Waitaki district.
When the campaign finished in August, the district had recycled 1800 televisions.
