New Zealand and Australia join forces on e-waste

New Zealand – New Zealand and Australia have arrived at an accepted joint draft concerning electrical and electronic waste processing. Once in force, the e-waste Standard will provide communities, private recyclers and scrap metal dealers with a means of quality control, demonstrating that they apply consistent standards to their activities.

According to New Zealand’s Environment Minister Nick Smith, the main issue facing a small country like his is economy of scale. ‘E-waste recycling is one example where large volumes are required to make it economically viable,’ he says. ‘This is why aligning good practice guidelines for e-waste recycling with the much larger market in Australia is so important.’ He adds that Australia was hand-picked due to their shared markets in terms of ICT and overall recycling.

The draft remains open for debate and Mr Smith has urged businesses and organisations with a role in handling e-waste to make submissions where they feel these are needed.