Waste investigation won't stop future eDays: organiser

The 2020 Communications Trust intends to continue holding eDays despite rising costs and bad publicity caused by an ongoing Ministry of Economic Development (MED) investigation into shipments of waste from this year’s event.

The MED has begun an investigation into CRTNZ - the recycling company hired by the 2020 Trust to ship the waste to South Korea for recycling. Ministry spokesperson Kate Camp said the investigation was launched after the MED “received some information in September”.

She refused to reveal what the ministry’s concerns were but the New Zealand Herald has reported that the ministry is alleging CRTNZ may have mixed hazardous waste with reusable computer items inside the containers.

CRTNZ CEO Alex Hong was unavailable for comment on the investigation.

2020 Trust chairman Earl Mardle said the ministry had not told the trust what its concerns were or what the scope of the investigation was, but any electronic waste was classified as hazardous and some media reports were misleading. The investigation was possibly into whether CRTNZ had breached e-waste regulations by packing re-usable electronics, destined for resale, and waste electronics, destined for recycling, in the same containers, he said.

Mardle said the 2020 Trust had decided to pay for a third-party company to monitor and certify the packing of export containers to "reassure MED" that the contents met their requirements and to enable the shipping of certified containers to continue during the investigation.

That process was costing the trust “$400 or $500 per container”, and that had not been budgeted for. So far, two of the containers had been checked and were now able to be shipped, but many more of the remaining 58 crates would require certifying.

“[The investigation] is potentially damaging to the whole eDay programme and costs could get out of hand.”

However, “at this stage” the event was likely to continue but the bad publicity and costs could negatively impact on sponsorship for next year.

If eDay was cancelled it would be a “huge shame” as it was currently the only way for many New Zealanders to dispose of their old computers and electronic waste, Mardle said.

He said he was confident the selection process used by the 2020 Trust to select CRTNZ had been thorough, and the trust had checked with all appropriate government departments before making its choice, to ensure CRTNZ had a good reputation.

In future, the trust would "probably" require that all eDay products were independently verified as it was loaded into containers to ensure there was “documented evidence” of their contents, he said.

Kiwis dropped off 966 tonnes of e-waste at this year’s event, held on September 12.