Recyclers want ban on dumping of e-waste at landfills

E-waste recycling companies are calling on the Government to ban the dumping of electronic equipment at landfills and mandate that it be processed at specialist facilities.

Kevin Ruscoe, general manager of Lower Hutt-based IT Recycla, said the explosion in electronic consumer goods, including computers, TVs, printers and stereos over the past 20 years had resulted in large amounts of toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, beryllium, cadmium, and chromium at dump sites.

IT Recycla has bought a new processing plant and an eddy current separator to break apart and process a portion of the 80,000 tonnes of e-waste dumped each year.

‘‘The Government needs to straight out ban the dumping of e-waste and then get out of the way and let companies like us deal with it,’’ Ruscoe said. He had long been concerned about the environmental impact of e-waste which accounted for 70 per cent of toxic waste dumped in landfills. Ruscoe said the majority of the e-waste he worked with came from government agencies and private companies.

‘‘A few years ago we had a free e-day and ended up with a queue of cars 7 kilometres long. We underestimated the demand from the wider public.’’ The new plant would break down and separate base metals such as steel, aluminium and copper from the plastics and printed circuit boards so they could be recycled, Ruscoe said.

Other e-waste recyclers support Ruscoe’s call for stricter regulations covering e-waste.

However, Mint Innovation commercial manager Thomas Hansen said the local market had its challenges such as sparsely populated regions where it was difficult to get the waste to recycling facilities. There was also little incentive to invest in recycling technology or infrastructure without a regulatory framework, Hansen said.

Alan Liefting, managing director of Ecotech Services in Christchurch, said he supported the Government’s product stewardship model announced in June.

‘‘This would mean manufacturers or importers would have to pay to have their items disposed of correctly,’’ Liefting said.