As a fast-track consent is sought for a major gold mine
in Central Otago and another has already been granted in
Coromandel, Zero Waste Aotearoa is calling upon the
government to mine electronic waste, not beautiful
landscapes, for gold and other precious
metals.
E-waste contains a significant concentration
of gold, with one metric tonne of electronic waste
containing up to 800 times more gold than a tonne of mined
ore. While precious metals (including gold, silver, copper)
make up approximately 60% of the composition of some
e-waste, gold specifically is highly concentrated, with a
single tonne of circuit boards containing roughly 39 grams
of gold.
New Zealand currently generates 99,000 tonnes
of e-waste every single year. Approximately 98 percent ends
up in landfill or is disposed of illegally, according to the
Ministry for the Environment.
“At present the
voluntary product stewardship scheme means that we have one
of the lowest rates of e-waste recovery in the world. We are
literally throwing gold away into landfills while proposing
to dig it up elsewhere in some of the country’s most
beautiful landscapes. It is the height of madness,” says
Sue Coutts of Zero Waste Aotearoa.
“Like many people
across the country, we are gravely concerned about the
environmental impact of gold mining. We think that there are
much better ways to get these valuable resources – and
ensure that they stay in circulation forever, not dumped in
landfills.”
“The World Gold Council says that only
7% of gold is used in tech but 27% of worldwide gold
production is already from recycling. This is more than 4
times what we need for tech – there is no valid reason to
dig up any more of our precious
ecosystems.”
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“Product stewardship would create a
pathway for a new industry: one built on resource recovery
of valuable materials and a circular economy.”
NZ
company MINT Innovation relocated to Sydney because they
could tap into flows of e-waste from extended producer
responsibility schemes that collect electronic waste in
Australia.
They chose not to invest in NZ because
there is no regulated e-waste scheme here. That’s $60m in
turnover that will be dropping into the Australian economy
every year instead of ours.
E-waste was declared a
priority product in June 2020 requiring the establishment of
a regulated product stewardship scheme under the Waste
Minimisation Act. Yet six years on, a mandatory scheme is
not in place and no further work is being
done.
