Ewaste set to blow-out with no dumping
A spiralling electronic waste (ewaste) problem could see nearly four million television sets and personal computers — each containing toxic cathode ray tubes — dumped in the next few years, a new report says.
The eDay New Zealand Trust’s report was released in the wake of a decision by the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund to deny funding for this year’s eDay waste collection.
“Our desire for the latest gadget has resulted in this huge environmental crisis in New Zealand and the world,” trust chair Laurence Zwimpfer said.
“Computer sales are on the increase and we are facing a disposal deluge of CRT TVs with the imminent switch to digital television in September 2012.”
The trust has called on the industry and the Government to work together to solve the increasing problem through a national co-regulatory ewaste product stewardship based recycling scheme.
“We are not talking about heavy handed government intervention. We’re calling on the Government to give the IT and TV industries a clear commitment to support an industry managed scheme with the necessary regulations to ensure all suppliers and importers contribute equitably to the costs of a national recycling scheme,” Mr Zwimpfer said.
The news of the funding denial was a “huge blow to the 60 communities that participated in eDay last year and have been encouraging their citizens to store their ewaste for this year’s event, that is now not likely to happen”, he said.
However Mr Zwimpfer said the eDay Trust would continue to look for alternative ways to provide a free ewaste disposal service to communities until product stewardship was in place.
