New Zealand recently held a free computer recycling event called eDay and this has now been repeated in the Cook Islands.
The event has been organised in response to growing concerns at the increase in harmful e-waste in the Cook Islands, where there are no local options for recycling or safe disposal. eDay has helped businesses and residents in the Islands to dispose of their unwanted e-waste including PCs, computer peripherals and mobile phones for safe recycling.
The event has been organised by a local team in Rarotonga that includes the Cook Islands National Environment Service, the Prime Minister’s Office and Government Departments responsible for Education, Infrastructure, Planning and local businesses. The eDay New Zealand Trust has also given its support.
Under the eDay initiative, unwanted mobile phones, computers and other e-waste are shipped to New Zealand to be recycled along with the waste collected from New Zealand’s eDay events. The overall management of the eDay iniative is in the hands of the New Zealand Environment Ministry in partnership with an e-waste recycler, to be appointed. The first Cook Islands eDay is being viewed as a pilot and if successful it will be rolled out to other Pacific islands who are facing similar problems of electronic waste disposal.
New Zealand’s fourth national eDay, was held on 6 November 2010 and around 77,000 items of IT equipment and mobile phones were collected through the 53 eDay sites located across the country.
Since its launch three years ago eDay has collected 274,000 items including mobile phones, computers and computer-related waste to be safely recycled. This has prevented about 3,200 tonnes of e-waste going to landfill.