In the spirit of Waste Reduction Week (Oct. 21-27), the Electronic Products Recycling Association wants Canadians to know that all those broken, busted, and not-working electronics around the house can be recycled and repurposed — and it has never been easier.
Because electronics contain a number of materials that can become hazardous when left in a landfill, like glass and toxic metals like mercury, it has become a serious question of what to do with them once they no longer work.
The EPRA’s Recycle My Electronics program answers that question by collecting end-of-life electronics to be safely recycled and turned into usable materials that go right back into the industrial production chain.
All of the items collected are sent to the processors right here in Western Canada, where they are dismantled and then, depending on the material, shredded and baled to be sold to manufacturers who will use them for future production — meaning your new office chair or even new electronic device could be made of recycled material.
Currently in Saskatchewan, the Recycle My Electronics program will take a long list of items: computers or any kind of display screens, printers, stereo components, wires and cables of all kinds, VCR and DVD players, microwave ovens, e-readers and gaming devices, and more.
The program is currently operating in 10 provinces across Canada, with Saskatchewan actually being the first place in North America to implement an industry-led electronics recycling program.
Residents take their electronics to a drop-off location, all of which are listed on the EPRA’s website, and Recycle My Electronics takes care of the rest. In Saskatchewan, the program runs in partnership with SARCAN, meaning that many of their depots act as drop-off locations.
Since the EPRA began the Recycle My Electronics program back in 2007, they have processed over one million metric tonnes of material across Canada — 32, 600 metric tonnes in Saskatchewan.
Gaylene Creelman, executive director of the Electronic Products Recycling Association, spoke of the benefits that recycling and reusing these materials has in the long-term picture.
“We’ve already mined this material from the earth and we really don't need to mine it again. And we want to expand the life of our landfills because there is a use for the material,” said Creelman.
According to the EPRA’s annual report, about 89 per cent of Saskatchewan residents are already aware of the program, which is an extremely high rate.
“We do still see about 80 per cent of households have at least one device sitting at home waiting to be recycled,” said Creelman. “So, I would challenge residents to kind of look through their homes see if there are things that they haven't used for a while that are truly at their end of life, and take those into recycling.”
And, for those wondering what sorts of places that broken-down metal ends up after the program, Creelman shared this interesting fact: 1.5 per cent of the metal used in the Vancouver Winter Olympics medals was recycled, and the Rio Summer Games medals were made of 30 per cent recycled metal.
For the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, one hundred per cent of the metal used in creating the gold, silver, and bronze medals will be recycled metal.
So, bringing your old iPad or computer to the Recycle My Electronics program could mean that it someday might hang around the neck of an Olympic athlete — a much better fate than settling in a landfill.
