In a Facebook post Monday the Town of Fort Frances announced that it is partnering with the Electronic Products Recycling Association (EPRA) to offer electronics recycling in Fort Frances.
Manager of operations and facilities for the Town of Fort Frances Travis Rob says the partnership was an idea that came out of a number of residents asking about electronics recycling during hazardous waste collection.
“It’s something that we get asked a lot about during hazard waste day, people always are looking for where they can drop their E-waste off,” Rob said. “They’re wanting to drop it off at hazardous waste day, and we don’t collect [E-waste] at hazardous waste day.”
In the past the town’s waste collections contractor, Asselin Transportation (now GFL) has provided an electronic waste drop off point but being on the outskirts of town means it’s not always a convenient location.
“We reached out to EPRA, the recycler of electronics, so to speak and started talking with them about what a program here at the town of Fort Frances would look like,” Rob said. “What sort of bins we could get, and who’s going to be emptying them and how frequently, just trying to go through the coordination aspect of it to figure it out.”
For the program’s launch, Fort Frances has three large soft sided bins or sacks to collect electronic waste in. They are located at the municipal public works office around the corner from the recycling depot where the glass drop off used to be.
The items permitted for disposal at the site include TVs and monitors, mobile and home telephones, computers, wires and cables, computer peripherals like mice or printers, and cameras of all sorts. You can even toss your old microwave oven or other small appliances in there. Smaller standalone batteries however should be brought into the Town’s Public Works office. For a complete list check out the poster on the Town’s Facebook page or at the site.
If you are recycling devices like computers or mobile phones, there are some precautions to take.
“The recommendation from the recycler is if you’re going to be depositing computers, things with storage, go through and clear the storage before you drop it off,” Rob said. “You know, the hard drives and stuff are removed and destroyed through the recycling process, but there is still an opportunity, potentially, for someone to get their hands on it and be able to access your documents and things you have saved on there. So if you are bringing an old cell phone or things like that, go through, delete your contacts, delete your pictures, delete your files before you drop it off for recycling.”
If the device still works you may want to back up the information and reset it to factory settings which should clear its memory, you should also remove the SIM card from any cell phones.
The program comes at little cost to the Town and taxpayers, Rob says.
“Basically our only cost is whatever staff time we have to set the bins out and move them out of the way,” Rob said. “There is no cost for recycling, this is all done for free through the EPRA, we’re basically just helping them to achieve their recycling goals by having public works as a drop off location.”
According to the EPRA website, recyclemyelectronics.ca after drop off the recycling is sorted and sent to a variety of processors.
“End-of-life electronics are dropped off at EPRA authorized collection sites, including drop-off centres, return-to-retail locations and at special collection events, in well over 3,150 locations across the country.
“The products are then sent to audited and approved specialized recyclers for processing. New technology is used to break down old technology and harvest the raw materials that went into them including glass, plastics, and precious metals like gold and copper. Substances of concern like mercury and lead, are also handled responsibly to protect both the environment, and the health and safety of the workers handling them. The recovered materials are then put back into the manufacturing supply chain and used to make new products.”
