Duane Hicks
Need to get rid of your old TV, VCR, or phone?
How about that laptop computer which has become woefully outdated, or that first generation iPod?
Thanks to a partnership with Ontario Electronic Stewardship, Asselin Transportation and Storage Ltd. is now a permanent drop-off depot for area residents to get rid of their electronic waste at no cost.
As of this week, residents can drop by Asselin Transportation during business hours and bring their unwanted electronics to a designated large shipping container (also known as a C-container) located there.
Business hours are 8 a.m.-noon and then 1-5 p.m. five days a week. The container will be closed and locked after-hours.
Within the next couple of weeks, a second electronic waste drop-off site will be set up at Black Sturgeon Waste, at the junction of Highway 502, as a convenience for residents living in that area.
Asselin Transportation owner Eldon Mose said the new partnership gives the public a way to dispose of unwanted electronics for free, and feels it will be popular.
“We’ve done it on our own a little bit prior to this and we’ve gotten a fairly good response,” he noted.
“But now that there’s no charge for it for the public, I think it’s going to be a bit more appealing to them.”
Mose said once the C-containers are filled, their contents will be emptied into Gaylord containers and shipped to Thunder Bay.
“We’re going to get paid to palletize everything in containers for them,” he explained.
“Time will tell how lucrative it is,” Mose added.
“We’re not going to get rich on it, I know that. But every little bit helps,” he reasoned.
Electronic waste that will be accepted includes desktop and portable computers, computer peripherals (i.e., keyboards, mice, hard drives, and optical drives like DVD, CD, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD, monitors, TVs, and desktop printers and scanners.
Also accepted are typewriters, telephones, answering machines, cellphones, pagers, audio players and recorders (digital and cassette), and equalizers, receivers, and speakers.
Rounding out the list of acceptable items are radios, turntables, cameras (web, digital, and analog), digital frames, and video players, projectors, and recorders.
