New Zealand takes action to reduce e-waste

The government of New Zealand has issued a consultation document titled ‘Proposed priority products and priority product stewardship scheme guidelines’ aimed at reducing the risk of the harm stemming from waste (including e-waste) and promoting the concept of circular economy.

The initiative has been well received, although such action should have been taken much earlier according to the eDay Trust, a body created in 2010 to tackle the growing challenges of e-waste. The trust called on the government to make a national e-waste recycling scheme a priority, given that the UN has previously referred to New Zealand as one of the world’s largest generators of e-waste and the only Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country without national e-waste regulations.