What is eWaste doing to New Zealand?

In New Zealand:

• 99 per cent of adults own at least one television.
• 88 per cent of adults own at least one mobile phone.
• A third of adults replace their mobile phone in less than two years.
• 77 per cent of adults own at least one computer.
• Of the 3.3 million mobile phones in New Zealand, 25 per cent (825,000) are no longer in use.
• Nearly a quarter of a million computers stored in people's homes are not being used.1

Recent figures based on global data estimate that New Zealand would dispose of approximately 75,000 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment each year. 2

Dumping eWaste in landfill, or putting it in an inorganic collection, is a common solution in New Zealand, but this is a potentially dangerous one. The presence of substances such as lead, mercury and cadmium in electrical and electronic equipment is an environmental risk. Ewaste is also being shipped overseas to countries that do not dispose of it safely, and causing risks to both the environment, and to their workers.

There is a safe and easy solution.