Electronic Waste
The goal of the Computer TakeBack Campaign is to protect the health and well being of electronics users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements.
We will accomplish this goal by establishing extended producer responsibility (EPR) as the policy tool to promote sustainable production and consumption of consumer electronics (all products with a circuit board). The Campaign will focus first on establishing EPR for personal computers. EPR will improve the next generation of solid waste and toxic materials policy, promote the manufacture of cleaner computers and curb the flow of toxic electronic waste by pushing manufacturers to take responsibility for their waste, internalizing its cost in corporate bottom lines, and phasing out the use of hazardous substances.
The site has some excellent reports on how the electronics inductry has contracts with prison to dismantle electronics and how hamful waste is exported for dismantling to Africa and China.
There is also produce a list of place where you can recycle your computer, particulary which companies will take them back and an interactive map to help you find a computer recycler near you.
The Electronic Industry Alliance also has a recycling campaign with an interactive map to
find reuse, recycling, and donation programs across the country. If you aren’t sure what to look for in a recycler, take a look at a series of questions we suggest to ask.
Any such entities in Canada I wonder?
