New Zealand’s biggest television recycling event

September 21, 2011

New Zealand’s biggest television recycling event

Organisers of a programme to recycle old televisions say they hope New Zealand households make the best of an opportunity to dispose of old sets responsibly.

The Great TV Take Back, supported by the government’s Waste Minimisation Fund, will run from September 21st to October 4th and will enable Kiwis to return old unwanted televisions to 20 participating The Warehouse stores throughout the country. The sets will be recycled according to strict environmental standards.

Sustainability manager at The Warehouse Trevor Johnston says it’s difficult to say just how many old TVs the programme might flush out.

He says the success of recent eDays suggests consumers are becoming aware of the importance of proper disposal of electronic waste. eDays, however, did not include televisions whereas this initiative focuses just on old TVs.

The Great TV Take back will be the largest public recycling event focusing solely on televisions. With The Warehouse heavily promoting the opportunity in store and on television it hopes to recover a significant number of the many hundreds of thousands of old Cathode Ray sets no longer in use in Kiwi households.

He said that The Warehouse had sold around 500,000 CRT televisions in the past, and hadn’t hesitated when the opportunity to enable recycling of old sets presented itself.

He said that the company hoped to see an industry wide product stewardship scheme for e-waste in the future. However, the Waste Minimisation Fund support offered a good start to voluntary schemes.

Despite an absence of national mandate The Warehouse has begun its own product stewardship initiatives – the first being its award winning “Bags for Good” programme aimed at cutting back plastic bag waste. The scheme has resulted in an 80% reduction in bags issued by The Warehouse with profits from the 10 cent charge being donated to local community groups and charities – around $400,000 each year.

Televisions returned to The Warehouse would be recycled by an approved specialist recycler. Recovery rates of the embedded materials in each television are estimated to be as high as 96%.

To encourage participation The Warehouse would also offer prizes and discounts on new televisions and digital receivers to anyone returning their old sets. The free recycling offer is available to all households with unwanted televisions of any brand – regardless of any intent to purchase.

Participating The Warehouse stores are:

o Albany
o Ashburton
o Belfast
o Bell Block
o Eastgate
o Fraser Cove
o Gisborne
o Greymouth
o Hastings
o Invercargill
o Manukau
o Masterton
o Nelson
o Palmerston North
o Petone
o South Dunedin
o Te Rapa
o Timaru
o Waipapa
o Whangarei

ENDS

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