Mine E-Waste For Gold, Not Beautiful Landscapes – Zero Waste New Zealand
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.”
“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.
