Computer collectibles saved from the tip

The Smales Farm depot on the North Shore received 1128 carloads of old electronic equipment on Saturday. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Vintage electronics, including one of the first Apple iMacs and an Atari computer game on cassette tape, are up for auction after being plucked from tens of thousands of old computer items collected during eDay at the weekend.

More than 966 tonnes of electronic equipment were collected around the country - 15,700 carloads taken to collection points during the annual event, which is in its third year.

The aim is to recycle electronics to prevent them taking up valuable space in rubbish dumps and to prevent environmental contamination from the toxic heavy metals in the equipment, which can pollute land and waterways.

At the Smales Farm collection point in Takapuna, unwanted computers were piled high in the carpark as 1128 carloads of equipment were off-loaded on Saturday.

National eDay co-ordinator Laurence Zwimpfer said the amount of waste collected nationally was enough to fill 55 shipping containers.

"As a nation we face a number of environmental challenges and e-waste is one of them. Our surveys have found that Kiwis are aware that dumping e-waste in landfills is not sustainable and eDay provides New Zealand households with an easy and free recycling option."

About 1500 volunteers helped to gather and sort through the collected items, which included old mobile phones and computer games.

Collectible items have been posted on a charity auction on the Trade Me website, and proceeds will go towards the cost of running eDay.

An Apple iMac computer listed on the site is trumpeted as: "One of the first iMacs. This is the computer that saved Apple's bacon, 11 years ago. In original packaging."

Other items include "VizaStar" software for the 1980s classic, the Commodore 64 computer, and an old mobile phone, the Motorola Pocket Classic 1200.

The phone's auction reads: "You'd need big pockets to hold this beauty. Probably at the time you needed deep pockets as well to buy it."

The remainder of the equipment will go to Auckland and Dunedin where it will be sorted before being sent to South Korea for recycling.

Mr Zwimpfer said that recycling could recover more than 95 per cent of the materials in computers for reuse.