This is a selection of curated news articles of interest to Ecotech Services, especially those relating to New Zealand. It covers matters relating to repairing and recycling electronics, electrical, and computer items.
Every year New Zealanders throw out 100 million kilos of old phones, laptops and batteries, which end up in landfill or are shipped overseas to recycling businesses that make money from our e-waste.
While we are exporting it, countries like the United States are ploughing billions of dollars into keeping e-waste onshore, because of the growing value of critical metals contained in it.
New Zealanders have shared their experiences of appliances designed to fail, and expensive but unrepairable tech, with MPs on the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee.
Parliament is considering establishing a limited “right to repair” to hold overseas manufacturers of things like whiteware and TVs accountable for repairing goods sold in New Zealand, and to prevent manufacturers from voiding warranties for using third-party parts or unauthorised repairers.
And for many people, disappointed by short-life appliances, a right to repair can’t come fast enough.
People’s testimonies and experiences indicate where they think companies are letting the public down.
Recycling for Charity’s Upper Hutt warehouse is an Aladdin’s Cave of old and new tech, organised into neat rows of laptops, stacked up monitors and boxes of cables for sale or recycling.
Lithium-ion fires have more than doubled, highlighting delay in NZ’s e-waste policy.
The number of fires caused by incorrectly disposed lithium-ion batteries is on the rise and Auckland Council wants better regulation for disposal requirements as a result.