More than half of Kiwi businesses say they haven’t recycled electronic waste in the last year, according to an e-waste recycling organisation.
A survey commissioned by Echo, released today, found 61% of businesses were improperly disposing of e-waste.
When asked why they didn’t recycle or dispose of their e-waste, 45% of business owners said they simply didn’t know what to do with their devices, while 35% said they don’t have the time to dispose of e-waste properly.
E-waste was the fastest growing solid waste stream in the world, with 53.6 million tonnes produced globally in 2019, according to the World Health Organization.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, 19.2kg of e-waste was generated per capita – above the OECD average of 17.1kg and more than 2.5 times higher than the world average of 7.3kg. Just 2% of this e-waste was diverted from landfill and recycled properly.
Echo CEO Patrick Moynahan said the results reflected the unsustainable habits of Kiwi business owners.
“With so many businesses saying they haven’t properly recycled their e-waste over the last year, this signals a huge number of items potentially ending up in landfill rather than being disposed of responsibly,” Moynahan said, in a statement.
“Clearly, there is an emerging awareness and desire to properly dispose of e-waste across Kiwi businesses, but some clear challenges have emerged, and this makes it hard for people to know what the options are.”
In addition, the survey found that half of all businesses (52%) believed they should be doing more to recycle their e-waste properly in the current climate of sustainability.
However, just one-quarter (25%) of Kiwi businesses said they had formal policies around how to properly dispose of e-waste products, while nearly half (44%) had no corporate social responsibility or sustainability policies in place at all.
‘A dumpsite for electronic waste’
“This paints a stark picture of the state of e-waste disposal across the country and indicates Aotearoa is becoming a digital dumpsite for electronic waste,” he said.
Moynahan said approximately 98,000 tonnes of e-waste ended up in landfills every year in New Zealand, highlighting a “major opportunity for sustainability improvement across the country”.
“Kiwi business owners play a pivotal part in this, placing them firmly in the driver’s seat to consciously dispose of e-waste and contribute to Aotearoa New Zealand’s circular economy.”
He called on New Zealand business leaders to “embrace change and make a difference in their own practices”.
“We encourage anyone interested in improving their sustainability practices to consider how they dispose of e-waste.”