Urban Miners extract metal from e-waste
First generation heat pumps coming to the end of their lives are likely to be a big money-spinner for a social enterprise set up to reduce e-waste.
Cambridge Rotary in the Waikato launched its ‘‘Urban Miners’’ e-waste recycling project in 2020 and so far it had diverted 3.54 tonnes of e-waste from landfill.
It had also sorted 1 tonne of electrical wiring, 50kg of domestic batteries and 400kg of lead-acid or car batteries, to send to its recycling partners.
Spokesperson David Blewden said the project was starting to move into heat pumps which had valuable metals and circuit boards inside.
‘‘Those are high yield materials. The other reason we want to move into heat pumps is that we have an unlimited supply. There were a lot of heat pumps first installed about 15 years ago, they are getting old and being whipped out.’’
Waipa¯ District Council and Cambridge Community Board helped secure funding to kick-start the Urban Miners but it was now moving into a position where it could pay its own way.
Set fees covered the cost to collect, sort and move e-waste to other recyclers. Metals extracted from heat pumps, for example, could be sold to help keep costs down.
The council said creating a resource recovery network for e-waste was of national importance.
In Hamilton, the city’s Lincoln Street Resource Recovery Centre accepted e-waste and if the items were in good working condition or repairable, they could be dropped at the Habitat for Humanity Restore next to the transfer station free of charge.
Go ECO also provided an e-waste service in Hamilton. Auckland firm Computer Recycling said it was aiming to collect 300 tonnes of e-waste this year, through 30 collection events.
It had collection bins in Hamilton too and its long-term plan was to set up collection points around the North Island.
Blewden set up Urban Miners with fellow Rotarian Mark Hanlon, from Cambridge.
The project is a finalist in the Waste Minimisation – Environmental Award and the Community Contribution Award at the 2021 Waipa¯ Business Awards.
Urban Miners ran their sorting operation from a secret warehouse somewhere in Cambridge, to stop dumping. It held regular collection days when volunteers could manage e-waste items dropped off.
The group recently held a collection day at Cambridge High School and planned another on April 18.
Batteries were also looming as another key product for Urban Miners to focus on.
‘‘New Zealand is the only developed Western nation where batteries can go into landfill,’’ Blewden said. Blewden said a town the size of Cambridge would send 20 tonnes of batteries to landfill each year.
‘‘We are working on an idea of using milk bottle receptacles as a recycling container for people to have for their old batteries. ‘‘We sell people a sticker to put on the bottle which allows them to return it to us when it’s full’’.
Blewden said the concept could be franchised to other Rotary clubs.
‘‘This is very much in the development stage. The batteries will still have to go offshore to be recycled because there is no one in New Zealand that does that. We are woefully under resourced when it comes to recycling capabilities.’’
Blewden hoped that would change when the Government moved on its plans for a product stewardship scheme.
Long term, Urban Miners hoped to be the accredited recycler for the scheme, for Waipa¯ .