The Hon Eugenie Sage, Associate Minister for the Environment, will be opening a new e-waste recycling facility in Upper Hutt on Monday 13 May 2019.

The new facility, operated by RemarkIT Solutions Limited, has been set up in Maidstone with the support of Upper Hutt City Council. RemarkIT was previously operating in Porirua, but made the move to larger premises in Upper Hutt to respond to the growing demand for e-waste recycling.

“We have been in the electronic waste recycling business for nearly twenty years and have had to regularly upgrade our facilities as the volumes of e-waste have increased,” said Tim Findlay, Managing Director of RemarkIT Solutions.

“Our goal from the beginning has also been to divert e-waste from landfills. Nearly all the materials used in manufacturing electronic equipment, some of which are rare and precious metals like gold, can be recovered and re-used in the manufacture of new equipment,” he said.

“We encourage the re-use of surplus electronic equipment, so we refurbish equipment as a first priority. We only dismantle and recycle equipment that really has no further use.”

“The challenge that we and other e-waste recyclers face is to maintain a sustainable business model. The fact is that it often costs more to recover materials through recycling than to purchase new materials. We have welcomed the commitment from Minister Sage to progress towards mandatory product stewardship schemes where the true cost of recycling is included in the purchase price of new equipment,” said Mr Findlay.

“We have also welcomed support from central government through the Waste Minimisation Fund for e-waste collection events such as eDay and TV Takeback, as well as investment in e-waste processing equipment. This has helped us expand our recycling capabilities and we are very proud of the certifications we have received for international best practice environmental and security standards. Security is top of mind for our clients who entrust us to ensure that data on their equipment is removed in a secure way. Our shredder reduces hard drives and other digital media to 3mm particles and we have been certified by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) as a secure facility,” he concluded.

As part of its community outreach programme, RemarkIT partners with the Digital Wings Trust which provides community organisations with refurbished computer equipment donated to the Trust from businesses and government organisations.

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