E-recycling catching on in Te Awamutu

A steady stream of cars attended the drive-through Urban Miners event last week - the biggest e-recycling event yet for Te Awamutu. Photo / Dean Taylor

Te Awamutu's e-waste collection project - Urban Miners - is gaining momentum and proving highly successful.

The event has been held three times, twice at the old Bunnings site and the most recent at Te Awamutu Sports Club.

That collection was the most successful to date and the team was busy from start to finish.

Spokesman councillor and community board member Lou Brown says Urban Miners concentrated with advertising in the Te Awamutu Courier and through signage on all the main routes into Te Awamutu, which proved very successful.

"Community board member Richard Hurrell counted over 60 vehicles, and many had two or more passengers," he said.

The Urban Miners group of Te Awamutu Rotary Club and four members of the Te Awamutu Community board, with support from Richard Stacy, collected two fully laden trailers and three loaded utes with a large number of old TVs, printers, computers and general e-waste.

It was transported to Cambridge for sorting and storing for future processing and dismantling.

Some items are repaired and sold in the Cambridge Lions Store, which helps fund the advertising and costs of the project.

Where Covid-19 alert levels allow, the collection will be operated at the Te Awamutu Sports carpark on the first Sunday of each month except January, from 9-11am.