Hopefully Santa brought you the electronic item(s) you have been wanting.  Now that you have that new cell phone/ iPod /computer etc… what do you do with the old one? An eco-friendly problem in our world today is the manner in which people deal with what has been dubbed “e-waste”.

E-waste is the term for discarded electronic items.  However gifts are not the main source of e-waste, though this time of year it might be the case.  No the main problem is that it is often more cost effective to replace old items than to repair them. In my own experience, I brought an MP3 player (won’t say the brand) to be repaired as it was under warranty and they simply swapped it out.  Why? The product specialist told me it was more cost effective for the company to replace it than to open the teeny tiny product and attempt the repair. With technology advancing at the speed of light, and with people wanting the best and latest model, is there an eco-friendly way to deal with the waste?

One of the issues with merely throwing these products out is that they leak toxins like mercury and lead, which then ends up in our soil and water, and in one way or another we end up consuming these toxins. So what can we do to try and stop this vicious cycle? There are a few options – some much more popular than others. An eco-friendly option would be to purchase refurbished electronics, as this keeps pieces out of landfills. This is often not a popular choice not just for reasons of vanity but refurbished often means as is and those items do not come with extended warranties and technical support. This might be an eco-friendly first choice for those who want to build there own computer, and are able to service said computer themselves. What about the rest of us who are not tech savvy to that degree?  There are options like the Electronic Recycling Association in Canada (era.ca).

According to their website “the ERA collects computers, laptops, and electronics for donation and recycling. Once items come to the ERA warehouses they are tested and sorted by age and quality. Reusable items are refurbished, donated or resold. End-of-Life items are recycled with government approved recyclers in Canada.” Basically you can arrange pick-up and they donate the computers to charities across Canada. Food Bank Canada has an eco-friendly program in association with retailers Fido and Rogers. In this case the consumer must drop off their old cell phones at either of these retailers, the phones are then slated for recycling/repurposing and the profits go to the food bank. There are solutions to the disposal of unwanted electronics, it just sometimes take a little initiative.

Tags: cell phone, computer, e-waste, Electronic Recycling Association, electronic waste, Fido, Food Bank Canada, iPod, landfills, MP3 player, planet forward, Recycling, refurbished electronics, repurposing, Rogers