New electronic waste program needs pickup option -- councillor

Students, seniors without cars stuck with old TVs, VCRs

HRM garbage collectors will slap this green ACES sticker on electronics left on the curb. Photo: Steve Davis

Kim Kierans left her old computer monitor on the curb last fall, only to find it was still there when she got home from work. But it had a brand new accessory.

"Electronics Rejected!" read the neon green sticker slapped on the screen by a Halifax Regional Municipality garbage collector.

"I lugged it back up to the porch and it's been there ever since," said Kierans, a journalism professor at the University of King's College. "I didn't know what to do or what was going to happen with it."

Below the dramatic rejection was more information about the Atlantic Canada Electronics Stewardship (ACES) which is responsible for electronic recycling in Nova Scotia. ACES has facilities throughout the municipality where people and businesses can drop off their electronics.

But a pickup program for electronic waste does not exist in the province.

Accessibility denied

Halifax Regional Councillor Jennifer Watts says residents need a program that offers the same recycling privileges to people without cars.

"The program needs to be more accessible to seniors, students, people from out of town and others who have a hard time participating because they don't have a car," said Watts.

Watts proposed her idea at a Halifax Regional Council meeting on Tuesday. The council will evaluate the idea in a staff report.

Watts is proposing a system somewhat like that of the Sudbury Toxic Taxi, which goes to houses to pick up hazardous or electronic waste. Residents make an appointment via telephone and have to be home when the pickup takes place.

A pickup program exists at Dalhousie, but only for electronic resources used by the university. Faculty and departments can fill out a form online to have their electronic waste picked up by Dal trucking for delivery to an ACES drop-off centre.

"It's not geared towards students right now," said Rochelle Owen at Dalhousie's Sustainability Office. Owen says the office is considering a day at the end of the school year on which students can drop off their electronics to be recycled. Right now the only option for students is to deliver their electronic waste to an ACES centre in person.

Reduce, reuse... then recycle

ACES is only a last resort for Bernie Young, Inventory Co-ordinator at the Nova Scotia Community College.

"We try to reuse everything that we can within the college," says Young. "If we can't reuse it within the college then we take a look around to organizations in the community to see who can."

Last spring NSCC replaced its old monitors with flat screens. It then donated 19 monitors to the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board.

Only when the monitors and computers have no more use does Young takes them to an ACES centre.

"We make a fair attempt to minimize (waste)," says Young.

Watts says the biggest potential obstacle for the program is the cost.

"A program like this would need a dedicated vehicle and staff," said Watts. "But it should be measured against the environmental impact of leaving (electronics) on the side of the road with regular garbage."

If the regional council's staff report finds the program feasible, it will have to wait until next year's budget considerations before going into effect.

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