by Teresa Carey…
Rockwood Environmental Action Community Taskforce (REACT Inc.) held their annual general meeting at the Stonewall Collegiate Library, Apr. 4. There, news of two upcoming permanent electronic waste (e-waste) depots for the Town of Teulon and the RM of Rockwood was announced. These will be up and running sometime this spring.
One of the evening’s two guest speakers, Dennis Neufeld, Program Manager of the Electronic Products Recycling Association (EPRA), described in detail what the depots would look like. Neufeld said they would be secure areas meeting high national standards, protected from the elements to prevent harmful leaching of dangerous elements like Cadmium from electronics into the environment, and secure, to protect against theft of any electronics which might contain sensitive personal data.
EPRA guarantees that nothing from the collection sites will end up in third world countries or sold on EBay. Furthermore, all recycled materials are tracked to ensure conformity with health and environmental standards. In addition, e-waste processors and companies utilizing the raw materials downstream are subject to audits.
Neufeld said the depots, intended for end of life electronic products, will help municipalities extend the life of their disposal grounds. He will be visiting more Interlake municipalities in the near future to discuss the idea of establishing e-waste depots for their communities. Under the program, municipalities will be reimbursed for setting up a collection site. Even those municipalities which are not “green-minded” will find that it is financially to their benefit to get on board, Neufeld explained.
“We want all of the e-waste,” Neufeld said. “E-waste is the fasted growing waste world-wide.”
EPRA currently moves 23,000 lbs of e-waste each week through its 35 collection sites across the province, 10 of them in Winnipeg. However, more sites are being planned for Manitoba, some to be located in other parts of the Interlake. EPRA wants to eventually locate sites within 50 KM of every rural Manitoban, and within 15 KM for urban residents.
All of the e-waste EPRA collects is being sent to a Morden-based company, Exner E-Waste Inc., which also presented at REACT’s AGM. The company processes end of life electronics into raw materials for the manufacturing industry, also offering a secure data destruction service.
EPRA does not charge the company for the waste. Rather, it is a win-win arrangement in which electronic waste is kept out of the landfills while the company can realize profit. Exner sells the processed waste, but most of what they accept is not of high value. The company sells the raw materials directly to the manufacturing sector and operates according to EPRA’s strict guidelines.
EPRA, which is non-profit and industry-led, took over the former Green Manitoba program only eight months ago. Its mandate is to significantly reduce the environmental impact of electronics, and receives no government funding. All program operating costs are covered solely through environmental handling fees (EHF) charged to consumers when they purchase electronics.
The fee, which is set by EPRA and mandated by law, is charged directly by retail sellers who sell electronic products in, or into, Manitoba. The EHF is neither a tax nor a deposit. What you pay reflects the actual cost of recycling the electronic goods you buy.
Here are some of the EHF fees you pay on new electronic products (either added to or built into your purchase price:
Desktop computers, $15.00; Portable computer, $3.00; Computer peripherals, $1.10; Television/Monitor, $9.25-$23.25; Printers/Scanners/Fax machines, $8.00; Audio/Video/Recording systems, $0.40-$3.50; Home theatre systems, $6.00; Non-cellular telephones/Answering machines, $0.85; Microwave ovens, $7.50-$10.00
