Fall in e-waste as recession bites

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20: Bermudians are holding on to their electrical goods and appliances as the recession continues.

Government recycling staff say people are keeping items such as televisions and computers longer, rather than buying new products.

There has been a 10-15 per cent drop in the amount of goods handed in to Government’s e-waste recycling programme.

Vanese Gordon, waste education and enforcement officer at the Ministry of Public Works, said: “Since the economic downturn, people do seem to be throwing away less.

Awareness

“Traditionally in Bermuda, people always wanted the biggest, the best, the latest, but people are tightening their belts a lot.

“But that’s good if it decreases consumption, increases awareness and cuts down on waste.”

Government’s Tynes Bay waste-to-energy plant took in unwanted electrical items on Saturday ready for shipment overseas for recycling.

Ms Gordon said: “We’ve been pretty steady — it’s always a bit slower in the summer as well because people are out doing things.

“But we’ve still taken in thousands of items, including bags of cellphones.

“We get everything really — kids’ toys, computers, phones, TVs, stereo systems, flashlights and air conditioners.”

She said many items are still in working condition.

“We do check the odd thing to see if it still works. We strongly encourage people to reuse things before we send them away for recycling,” she said.

“We don’t do that with computers though. We have to be careful with them for security reasons.

“When we get a company with a lot of stuff, we often suggest they contact the XL Foundation to see if they can find somewhere to donate it to, so things can be reused on the island.

“We’ve been surprised sometimes at what does get dropped off — we got a TV which was less than a month old, but it had an intermittent fault and the man didn’t want it.”

Michael Perinchief, a Tynes Bay employee, spent Saturday stacking items in a container ready for shipment to US Environmental Protection Agency-approved plants.

He said: “People are increasingly recognizing that the environment is important and needs protecting. It’s good to see so many people turn up with electrical items.

“We sent more than 100 container-loads abroad in 2009-10 for safe recycling and that’s all waste that won’t end up causing problems in Bermuda.”

According to Government statistics, the Public Works waste management section sent 26 containers full of air conditioners overseas in 2009-10.

A further 24 container-loads of car batteries were shipped, as well as 10 of general e-waste, four of transformers, two of fluorescent tubes and one of batteries.

For more information on e-waste days and disposal of items which could harm the environment, log on to www.wastemanagement.gov.bm