E-Waste in Canada
Environment Canada reports that Canadians bury or incinerate 158,000 tons of obsolete computer and electronic equipment every year. That is expected to triple by 2010 when Canada’s homes and businesses will collectively produce more than 400,000 tons of e-waste. E-waste, including computers, TVs and other electronics products, is the fastest growing source of waste in North America and only 11 per cent of e-waste is recycled, according to a study conducted by the University of British Columbia.
While Canadian companies "lag behind Europe and the U.S." when it comes to recycling computers, they donate more used computers to schools and charities and sell more to their employees than companies in any other country, says Marc Perrella, IDC Canada Technology Group vice-president.
How to navigate the recycling maze.There are programs out there to help businesses and consumers get rid of old equipment responsibly, Globe & Mail
Here is a list of companies that have take back programs:
- Hewlett-Packard
Website http://www.hp.ca/recycle
Takes computer hardware and inkjet or laser cartridges for recycling for a fee
Has free retail drop-off points for rechargeable batteries
Has trade-in options
- Dell
Website http://www1.ca.dell.com/recycling
Consumers: no-charge recycling for Dell equipment without requiring new product purchases
Businesses: fee-based service for removing and recycling any used IT equipment
Donating: National Cristina Foundation helps disabled and disadvantaged children and adults
- Apple
Website http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling
Free computer take-back and recycling with the purchase of a new Mac
$30 (U.S.) to ship a used computer or monitor to Apple’s recycling partner
- reBOOT Canada
Website http://www.rebootcanada.ca
Accepts drop-off donations or arranges for pick-up for a fee of computers and some electronic equipment at several locations across the country
Non-profit provides computer hardware and training to charities, non-profits and people with limited access to technology
- Others
Electronic Recycling Association (for western Canada): http://www.era.ca
More options: http://www.computerhope.com/disposal.htm
One of the solutions I’ve found that help tackle e-waste and keep existing, outdated PCs going is to go with a company called Userful. They’re huge on green computing and can use a single existing PC to power up to ten workstations at once. This is a huge way to help combat e-waste and bring outdated PCs back to life. You can find out more on this here – http://www.userful.com.
Comment by b79 — April 24, 2008 @ 1:25 pm