Clever solutions to recycling funded

Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage today announced funding to increase E-waste recycling and avoid it ending up in landfills.

“Auckland company Mint Innovation use chemistry and microbiology processes to recover valuable metals from electronic waste such as mobile phones and computers.  Mint are conducting a technical feasibility study for deployment of the technology in New Zealand using a $80,000 grant from the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF),” Eugenie Sage said.

“Tackling E-waste is one of my key priorities as Associate Environment Minister. This project shows that there are solutions to really tough waste problems.

“Often old electronic goods end up in landfills. This is a huge waste of finite resources such as lithium and copper, and is also a major environmental hazard.

“Heavy metals and toxic chemicals can leach from landfills into soil and waterways, harming aquatic life and posing a threat to human health.”

The Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund was established in 2009 and is funded by a levy of $10 per tonne charged on waste going into landfills.

“As a nation we need to accelerate our transition to a circular economy, where the products we make and use are designed to be reused, recycled or composted, so that waste is designed out of the system.”

For more information visit http://www.mfe.govt.nz/more/funding/waste-minimisation-fund/about-waste-...

Latest Conservation Announcements

Story

Labour must deliver on No New Mines

The Green Party is disappointed tonight that the Government has voted down Eugenie Sage’s members’ bill to stop new mining on conservation land. Th...
Read More

Story

Inquiry into forestry slash and land use welcome, but more needed

Today’s news of a Ministerial inquiry into forestry slash and land use in Te Tarāwhiti/Gisborne and Wairoa is welcome, but the forestry sector shou...
Read More

Story

Time for Labour to deliver on No New Mines

The Green Party is today welcoming reports of Government progress towards having no new mines on conservation land.
Read More

Story

Urgent action needed at home following global deal for nature

The Green Party welcomes an historic new global agreement to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade and calls on the Governm...
Read More

Story

Swimmable rivers and healthy lakes could soon be out of reach

The Green Party is calling on the Government to tighten the rules on synthetic fertiliser use and intensive land use, including intensive winter gr...
Read More

Story

Bill to ban mining on conservation land pulled from biscuit tin

Following months of work by the Green Party and community and environmental organisations, Parliament will have the opportunity to pass legislation...
Read More