TDC to offer e-waste recycling subsidy
More than 1000 Tasman district businesses or residents will soon be able to collect a discount of $20 for recycling their electronic waste.
The Tasman District Council engineering services committee on Thursday approved the establishment of a 12-month trial from July 1 of the subsidy scheme, up to $20,000 in total.
Applied as a $20 discount on any single transaction, the subsidy will be limited to once a year for a resident or business.
In a report on the issue, TDC asset engineer David Stephenson says the Ministry for the Environment estimates that about 18kg of e-waste is generated annually by each person. In the Nelson-Tasman region, that equates to about 1800 tonnes a year, or 3 per cent of all waste going to landfill.
‘‘Some e-waste contains substances that can be toxic to the environment and to human health if disposed of or handled inappropriately,’’ he says. ‘‘Some e-waste also contains valuable and scarce resources that could be considered for recovery and recycled rather than landfilled.’’
There are limited recycling services for e-waste in the region. The Nelson Environment Centre offers a user-pays recycling service, several reuse stores and secondhand stores resell some products, and several other small businesses offer ‘‘informal recycling services’’.
Brother provides free recycling of printers and peripherals through Call A Geek, Lazer’s Edge (Nelson) and Affordable Computers (Motueka), while the council provides free recycling of rechargeable consumer batteries and florescent tubes and bulbs, Stephenson says.
The council’s preferred mechanism to manage e-waste is a ‘‘product stewardship programme’’, where a producer, brand owner, importer and retailer accepts responsibility for reducing the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. That may include a free take-back service.
Stephenson told councillors the subsidy trial was a ‘‘stop-gap’’ measure and not a replacement for any stewardship programme.
Cr Dana Wensley said she believed the subsidy scheme was a good example of what the council could do to help people make ‘‘good decisions’’.
The trial is to be funded by the council’s share of the Waste Disposal Levy, distributed by the ministry. It follows a similar trial by Nelson City Council, which was agreed in November. About 70 subsidies a month were provided via the trial, which received positive feedback. From July, the city council will be offering the subsidy on an ongoing basis, with a review scheduled in two years.
NCC infrastructure group manager Alec Louverdis said the purpose of the subsidy was to help people keep harmful materials out of landfill and encourage the reuse of resources. ‘‘The success of the e-waste subsidy shows we have residents who want to do the right thing for our environment, and as a council, we want to encourage and support that.’’