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New Drop-Off Point for E-Waste in Cambridge

You can drop off e-waste at Achievement House, Wilson Street, five days a week during their normal opening hours. This adds to our existing monthly Sunday collections at Cambridge High School, which will continue as usual.Items accepted include:Computers, laptops, phones, and small electronicsCables, plugs, and cordsBatteries of all typesPlease note: we cannot accept large whiteware such as fridges or washing machines.All collected e-waste is dismantled at the Urban Miners workshop, where materi...

Urban Miners E-Waste Clock is Ticking

Urban Miners have been busy innovating again – this time they have created a clock to count all the e-waste that has passed through their hands.The clock hand – which currently sits just past the 60-tonne mark – shows that more than 60 tonnes of  e-waste has been diverted from landfill since Urban Miners started back in December 2020.This total does not include the weight of refurbished and repurposed goods and devices sold at the Cambridge Market or devices donated to local not-for-p...

Free Battery Recycling Comes to Waipā

Free recycling for household batteries is now available to the Waipā community in both Te Awamutu and Cambridge thanks to support from the Te Awamutu and Cambridge Community Boards.In Te Awamutu, there is a permanent household battery collection stand in Pak N’ Save that was established by the Te Awamutu Community Board.In an exciting new development, Pak N’ Save Te Awamutu are contributing funds towards battery recycling this year so that the collection point can remain in their store.Te A...

Urban Miners E-Waste Truck Ready for Action Thanks to Local Firm

Waipā e-waste recyclers Rotary Urban Miners can now collect and transport e-waste in a purpose-built truck thanks to local family-owned business C&R Developments.The truck was gifted to Urban Miners from the Waipā District Council last year in recognition of their e-waste initiative, but needed a fitted cage so it could carry larger volumes of e-waste.Spokesperson Mark Hanlon observes “There is quite a lot of engineering involved in creating a cage, particularly as it had to be custom-bu...

Urban Miners Reach Out To Local Business Community for E-Waste

Urban Miners collaborated this week with the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce to host a ‘Mine and Dine’ for local businesses.Visitors from more than 25 businesses attended the event which was held in conjunction with an e-waste processing session at the Urban Miners’ base in Leamington.Since Urban Miners started operations in 2020, they have successfully recycled 60 tonnes of e-waste sourced primarily from the community in Waipā rather than businesses.As the operation has become increasingly...

Urban Miners Hit 60 Tonnes of E-Waste Diverted From Landfill

At the close of 2023, Urban Miners successfully diverted 59,935 kg of e-waste from landfill since operations began in December 2020. This is similar to the weight of an Airbus A321.This does not include the weight of refurbished and repurposed goods and devices sold at the Cambridge Market or donated to local not-for-profits, which tips the tonnage well over 60 tonnes.These latest numbers reveal the considerable impact that Urban Miners are having on cutting e-waste in the Waipā District.Urban ...

Urban Miners Celebrate Another Successful Year

Urban Miners celebrated their third year of operation at their annual Christmas barbeque over the weekend.Chairman Mark Hanlon commented “Another spectacular year! Our number one mission is to collect and divert e-waste from landfill, and during the last financial year we collected 20 tonnes of e-waste. That is something that we are very proud of!’Urban Miners had their first public e-waste collection back in December 2020 in Cambridge. In that time, they have collected a net 53 tonnes of e-...

Urban Miners Finalists at Sustainable Business Awards

Waipa e-waste recyclers Urban Miners are very proud to be named as a finalist for the Outstanding Collaboration Award at the 2023 New Zealand Sustainable Business Awards.The Outstanding Collaboration Award, sponsored by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, recognises organisations that create and foster connections that generate positive impacts on people’s lives. These connections draw on the strengths and unique advantages of those involved to deliver impact which could not...

Urban Miners Saves 49 Tonnes of E-waste from Landfill

As of September 2023, Waipā e‑waste recyclers Urban Miners have successfully diverted over 48,800 kg of e-waste from landfill since operations began in December 2020. This is similar to the weight of an Airbus A321.These latest numbers reveal the considerable impact that the local not-for-profit organisation is having on cutting e-waste in the Waipā District.Urban Miners collect e-waste from the community at monthly collection events in held both Cambridge and Te Awamutu.Attendance at t...

Happy Ending for Pallets of E-waste

‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ came true recently when several pallets of e-waste destined for landfill took a uniquely positive journey.It started when a supplier of animal equipment was forced to scrap four pallets of imported egg incubators because they did not meet company quality control requirements.The company was keen to find an environmentally friendly way of handling the equipment rather than sending it to landfill.Waipā e-waste recyclers Urban Miners were asked t...

Are You Stockpiling E-waste?

In 2022, a massive 5.3 billion mobile phones around the world became e-waste. Only a small fraction of them were disposed of properly.Despite containing valuable gold, copper, silver, palladium and other recyclable components, experts believe that most cell phones disappear into drawers, closets, cupboards or garages, or are tossed into waste bins once they are no longer needed.Last year, the International Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum conducted a survey of almost 9000 h...

Alan van Niekerk – Giving E-Waste a New Lease of Life

Urban Miners started selling second-hand computers and phones last year as part of their mission to repair, repurpose and recycle e-waste in Waipā. Volunteer Alan van Niekerk talks about the unprecedented demand for these refurbished goods and how the work that Urban Miners do meshes with his own values.Not long after Urban Miners started collecting e-waste in Waipā, they realised that many of the laptops, computers and cell phones handed in for recycling were still in working order and c...

World Environment Day – How to Minimise Your E-Waste

Our love of technology and insatiable appetite for new devices has created one of the biggest environmental issues of our time – e-waste.E-waste is New Zealand’s fastest growing waste stream. Every year, the average Kiwi generates a massive 20 kg of e-waste yet only 2% of it is recycled.World Environment Day (5th June 2023) is a great opportunity to think about e-waste and how to prevent it from going to landfill.There are many simple things we can do to manage our e-waste footprint and redu...

Geoff Bentley – A Passion for Sustainable Technology

There aren’t many people who know the inside of a mobile phone better than Geoff Bentley.He has a particular passion for repairing electronic devices that led him to become a volunteer for Urban Miners.As Geoff sees it, recycling takes energy. It’s far better to repair and reuse if possible.“I’m able to rescue at least 50% of the phones and tablets that get dropped off [to Urban Miners].”“We soon realised that we could potentially refurbish them, wipe them, and get them back into the...

Urban Miners Wins Top Waipā Environmental Award

Urban Miners emerged from a strong field last night to win the Waste Minimisation Environmental Award at the 2023 Waipā Networks Business Awards.It was an important win for the enterprise which started two years ago to address the growing problem of e-waste in the Waipā district with the aim of diverting e-waste from landfill through recycling, recovery, reuse, and repair.The success of Urban Miners is starting to become apparent with approximately 38,000kg of e-waste diverted from landfill si...

Urban Miners Saves 38 Tonnes of E-waste From Landfill

After only 2 years of operating, volunteer-run Urban Miners has successfully diverted over 37,800 kg of Waipā’s e‑waste from landfill, roughly equivalent to the weight of a Boeing 737.One of the main goals of Urban Miners is to divert meaningful quantities of e-waste from landfill through recycling, recovery, reuse, and repair.These latest numbers reveal the considerable impact that the not-for-profit organisation is having on cutting e-waste in the Waipā District.Over the same period, the...

Successful Move for Urban Miners Stall

Urban Miners have changed the location of their monthly stall selling refurbished electronic devices from Tamahere Country Market to the Lions Market in Cambridge for 2023.Early signs are that the move is a big success. The first stall at the new venue this weekend had the most traffic and best sales ever, despite the blustery weather and imminent threat of cyclone Gabrielle.Urban Miners stall coordinator Alan van Niekerk said “We are really very pleased with the turnout at our stall this week...

Urban Miners From The Inside With Greg Liddy

Long-standing volunteer – Greg Liddy – has been an integral part of Urban Miners since the concept was first proposed by founders Mark Hanlon and David Blewden.He shares his observations about how the organisation has grown over the past 2 years and how the team has become much savvier about how they do things.“Mark and Dave spoke to me one night in the early days and talked about where Urban Miners could go and how it could go.”“They went through the process and got some seed funding ...

Urban Miners Hit Two-Year Milestone

Urban Miners celebrated their second year of collecting e-waste in Waipā this week.More than 20 volunteers came long to join the celebration and mark another year of progress by the group.It is one of many milestones achieved since they started first collecting e-waste in December 2020.“It’s fair to say that when we first presented the idea to Cambridge Rotary, there was a fair amount of scepticism as to whether we would actually pull this off or not!” observed spokesperson David Blewden....

Urban Miners Reduce Fees Again

Waipā e-waste recyclers Urban Miners has made further substantial and wide-ranging reductions in the fees it charges the public for recycling e waste. This includes several high-volume items such as laptops, computers, flat-panel TVs, small household appliances and microwave ovens. Some items now just cost $2, and many more are only $5.Spokesperson Mark Hanlon said when Urban Miners was first conceived, a key objective was that it would operate as a not-for-profit social enterprise and any surp...

First-Hand From Volunteer Murray Glensor

We are hugely appreciative of our team of volunteers, some of whom have been with us since we first started. This week we profile one of our long-standing volunteers ‒ Murray Glensor ‒ who talks about being a volunteer with Urban Miners and the not-so-gentle art of processing e-waste!“We’ve all got e-waste” says Murray “We all use electrical things that are eventually going to stop working one day, and how do you dispose of them? Up until 2 or 3 years ago, we all just put them in our...

Showcasing Urban Miners

The Urban Miners’ trailer should be easier to spot around town now with its new branded cover.The trailer was purchased earlier this year to transport e-waste from collection events in Cambridge and Te Awamutu to the Urban Miners’ processing facility in Leamington. Fully loaded, it holds up to 2.5 tonnes of e-waste and has been a huge asset to the teams at the collection events.We are indebted to our sponsors – Waipā District Council, Waipā Waste Minimisation Fund, Cambridge Community Bo...