This old battery was one of the many items of e-waste found during a clean-up event at Foxton Beach last month. Photo / Robbie Stillwell
This old battery was one of the many items of e-waste found during a clean-up event at Foxton Beach last month. Photo / Robbie Stillwell
A proposal presented to Horowhenua District Council earlier this year, outlining ways to encourage residents in their choices regards disposing of electronic waste, has come to fruition this month.
As of Monday November 1, the council began subsidising the disposal of e-waste at a reduced fee or even for freeat both the Foxton and Shannon waste transfer stations.
Televisions have been reduced from $40 to $20 and some items are now free to recycle, for example, household batteries, car batteries, energy-saving light bulbs, cell phones, computer desktops and servers.
According to the council's media release, e-waste is the fastest-growing type of waste in the world and in New Zealand, we generate around 80,000 tonnes per year, with only 2 per cent being recycled.
Robbie Stillwell, HDC's waste minimisation officer, said the aim of the subsidy was to make the e-waste recycling service more affordable as well as to reduce the dumping of electronic waste in Horowhenua.
Stillwell is hopeful that by making the cost of disposal more affordable, the community will get behind it and start recycling their old electronics the right way.
Unwanted batteries can be dropped off at any waste transfer station in the area for free.
The council-run ones at Foxton and Shannon will take everything else, for free or with a subsidised fee to help dispose of these items safely with less environmental impact.
