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Recycling your electronics: how to do it, and how you know they’re going to the right places

The downside of constantly upgrading to the latest and greatest technology is that many of us end up with old, obsolete devices cluttering up our homes. Earth Day is the perfect opportunity to take your electronics to be recycled.

Where can I recycle them?

There are a number of organizations both provincially and nationally that will take your old electronics and either give them a new home or send the parts to the facilities than can best dispose of them.

National

The Electronics Recycling Association is a national non-profit that collects used electronics in many of Canada's major cities. They collect desktop computers, laptop computers, printers, computer peripherals, servers, phone systems, monitors, televisions, software and other related computer equipment and donate it to charities that can benefit from the unwanted electronics.

The organization wipes clean the hard drives of the computers and refurbishes everything they can. Whatever isn't salvageable is recycled in a "responsible and environmentally friendly way," the website says. Electronics can be dropped off at the ERA warehouses — located in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Ottawa, Barrie, Montreal and Dartmouth — or arranged to be picked up by the ERA in those cities as well.

This Earth Day weekend, the ERA is holding its annual 'Recycling Round-Up' at Calgary's Deerfoot Mall, where they will collect computers, laptops, cellphones, electronics and printers for charity. ERA is also challenging companies to collect old cell phones for recycling from now until April 27. For more information, contact donate@era.ca.

If you're an Apple user, you can also take advantage of the company's recycling program which takes used computers and monitors. Canadians can buy an Electronic Recycling Program prepaid shipping label for $30 USD.

Ontario

Ontario residents can also take advantage of the services offered by not-for-profit organization Ontario Electronic Stewardship and their 'Recycle Your Electronics' program at recycleyourelectronics.ca . Much like the ERA, they take computers and computer peripherals, as well as a variety of sound equipment and other miscellaneous electronics (for a complete list, click here). You can search for the nearest drop-off centre by visiting the website and searching either by postal code or community.

British Columbia

Encorp Return-It coordinates the recycling of certain goods in B.C. including electronics. You can use the search tool on their website to see where the nearest recycling centre is located and what they'll accept. There are also scheduled drop off events for electronic devices including desktop and laptop computers, monitors, peripherals, scanners, printers, fax machines, non-cellular phones, as well as audio and video systems in various communities across the province. These events happen year-round,and you can check here for when the next one will be coming to you.

For more information on how to recycle electronics in other provinces you can visit these websites:

Where do my recyclables go?

Many of the parts in electronics — such as steel, glass, copper, aluminum , plastics and precious metals — can be recycled and turned into new products and kept out of landfills, the 'Recycle Your Electronics' website says. Once OES receives the electronics they're inspected and weighed, then sent to one of OES's approved processors.

Return-It in B.C. follows a similar process, which is closely monitored by Electronic Product Stewardship Canada's Environmental Recycling Standard (ERS). This standard outlines the minimum requirements companies in Canada need to follow in order to be recognized as a reputable recycler. There are rampant issues in the recycling community with the discarded products of well-meaning donators being shipped overseas for dismantling in unsafe ways. By inquiring if the place you are donating recycled goods to follows the ERS, you're making sure your recyclables are being disposed of in the most responsible way possible.

(Photo from OES)