On March 31, 2009, Ontario Electronic Stewardship announced details of announced details of a program to divert an additional 160,000 tonnes of waste electronics from landfills.
The industry-developed and operated Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) program is setting up a network of collection sites where consumers and businesses can drop off unwanted electronics with assurance that they will be recycled according to established North American environmental standards. Currently about 25,000 tonnes of WEEE are collected annually in Ontario through public and private sector programs.
Products captured under the program include desktop and laptop computers and peripherals such as mice, keyboards and disk drives; monitors; desktop printers; fax machines and televisions. Other electronics such as cell phones and cameras will be added in later phases of the program.
The network of certified WEEE collection sites includes municipalities, retail stores and community service organizations. Certain Salvation Army Thrift Stores will, as of April 1, will enhance their existing electronics collection program by expanding the types of materials they accept to include all of the designated products. Sears Canada will host an OES electronics "take-back" day on April 25, 2009 in the parking lots of 14 of their stores in Eastern Ontario, and is planning to host similar collection events at stores throughout the province. 17 Staples locations in Southwestern Ontario will be drop off points for electronic devices commencing May 1, 2009. This pilot program will run for 90 days to allow Staples to properly develop the internal tools necessary to meet the needs of their customers and to assess the possibility of program expansion.
As of April 1, Ontario will charge recycling levies on the purchase of desktop computers, laptops, computer peripherals, monitors, televisions and printers.
In so doing, Ontario is taking a cue from Alberta; Alberta was a pioneer in electronics stewardship, starting Canada's first electronics recycling program of its kind in 2004. It seems as though Ontario is taking steps to increase the availability of collection sites for consumer electronics; it will be interesting to see whether this increase in availability results in more Ontarians taking the initiative to provide their waste electronics to collection sites.
