Mayor Adrienne opened our new battery and e-waste recycling bins at the transfer stations last week. The builders from the Men’s Shed came along, as well as the electronics recycling team from E-Cycle.

The stations will provide a safe place to recycle any of the following items: household batteries, power tools, TVs, computers, cell phones, electronics and small appliances. Recycling these items will not only divert a lot of waste from landfill, but also keeps our drivers safe from truck fires. There have been rubbish trucks catching fire across the country, because when lithium batteries are put under pressure they can explode – and lithium fires are nearly impossible to put out.

To avoid this, people just need to put clear tape on the ends of their batteries and drop them in to the nearest transfer station. "Sticky tape over the top prevents the metal from touching and having a reaction. If it hits the tape then it's not going to react positively," explains Jeremy from E-Cycle. There are a few things that are not able to go into these recycle bins though; particularly damaged batteries, vape pens and lightbulbs, because they are considered hazardous waste and need to be disposed of separately.

After the e-waste bins are collected, the contents are dismantled with hand tools and put into different categories for recycling. "If you imagine your computer - that will be broken down into the metal casing, circuit board, cables, hard drive, add-on cards etc. and grouped with similar items," said Jon from E-Cycle. "About 80% of what we get can be diverted for recycling." That means less rubbish getting sent to landfill, and therefore less for ratepayers to cover.

Mayor Adrienne served on the board of the Agrecovery Foundation for 9 years and believes this initiative is an important one. "We've got to do our best to counter the effects of the waste that we create, and this service makes it that much easier for our residents. We want to remove as many barriers as we can for people wanting to recycle their household items." The battery and e-waste bins are now located in every transfer station in the district - Matamata, Morrisville, and Te Aroha (Waihou). See the opening hours and more here.