New recycling centre set up for electronic waste
Wanganui District Council is opening a user-pay centre for unwanted electronic waste from today.
The Peat St recycling centre will be open every Saturday from 9am-1pm to take in e-waste.
There is a scale of fees to use the drop-off service which replaces the annual collection that has been held in the past.
The weekend service will remain in place until council establishes a new resource recovery centre where the old Wanganui prison used to stand in Maria Place Extension.
That site is currently land banked as part of the Treaty of Waitangi settlements and council has been discussing the development with local iwi who were keen to be involved in running the recycling centre.
E-waste includes such things as computers, screens, fax machines and old television sets, and is regarded as one of the fastest growing hazardous waste categories in the world.
Up until 2010 Wanganui residents were able to dump their e-waste every year as part of a nationally funded clean-up day. This has been replaced by the user-pays collection and recycling service.
Councillor Rob Vinsen, chairman of the council's waste minimisation working party, said the new service was something council was keen to encourage as part of its waste minimisation strategy.
Mr Vinsen said it was a "really positive step forward" because it gave people a chance to dispose of all kinds of e-waste responsibly.
He said electronic items contained toxic metals such as lead and mercury - along with a raft of other hazardous substances - and if dumped improperly posed major risks to people and the environment.
But disposed of properly e-waste can be broken down and much of it recycled and reused in new products.
The new centre will handle dry recyclables, second-hand goods, green waste and hazardous waste.
Prices for the Saturday service range from $4 for network equipment such as routers, to $60 for a large copying machine and $4 per kilogram of copier toner. Older version televisions and plasma and LCD televisions will cost $25 each while cellphones can be dropped of free.
Washing machine disposal will cost $10, while disused toasters, kettles and blenders will cost $5.
