Tim Lougheed
That new cell phone or MP3 player may look neat and tidy, but such high tech marvels represent the cutting edge of toxic waste.
Packed with parts containing heavy metals — not to mention plastics that will last for millennia — we bring more and more of these devices into our homes and offices. And we enjoy them only until manufacturers woo us with upgrades, perhaps mere months after we have bought the first one.
At that point, old electronics become some of the world’s most sophisticated trash, leaving many of us wondering what to do with the stuff. Ashley Deathe had a first-hand look at this conundrum last March, when the University community was invited to drop off unwanted gadgets for disposal with local recyclers or resellers.
“People were so thankful that we were just taking it off their hands,” says Deathe, now a third-year student in the Faculty of Law and president of the Environmental Law Students’ Association. The association partnered with the Law and Technology Students' Society to host a one-day drop-off, along with a symposium made up of speakers from government, industry and media.
The event called The Integrated Circuit, surveyed the practical realities and environmental implications of electronic waste. The problem extends around the world, Deathe points out, but it starts right here.
“Every student at the law school seems to have a laptop computer, myself included,” she says. “How often are those people going to buy a new one?”
Too often, states Jonathan Rausseo, coordinator of Sustainable Development for the University’s Physical Resources Service. Looking for ways of improving how the University handles everything from paper to building supplies, he regards electronic equipment as a rapidly emerging challenge.
“Technically, you’re not supposed to throw these into the garbage, but there’s no actual regulation or mechanism to punish anyone who’s doing it,” he explains. “The temptation to just throw it out is always there.”
People do resist that temptation, he adds, but do not know what to do next.
“In various places on campus they have these computer graveyards,” says Rausseo, describing closets full of everything from 20-year-old Commodores to the latest Pentium-powered models. Likewise, residence cleaning staff also present him with collections of material left behind by students, ranging from cheap multi-purpose printers to dead cell phones and televisions.
He is exploring local channels for recycling these goods, perhaps donating reusable items for use somewhere else, while offering others to firms that deal in recovered metals.
Meanwhile, just as carpet suppliers to the University take away their used products afterward, so too are high tech manufacturers being encouraged to adopt this approach. Joanne St-Gelais, assistant director of Materials Management Services, points to one of the latest contracts the University has signed with IBM/Lenovo, which calls for these suppliers to take back their goods when the University can no longer find a use for them.
Nevertheless, these kinds of contracts will ultimately capture only part of the electronic waste stream. While the rest could go to some centralized facility, a better solution calls for each of us to reduce the number of these products we acquire in the first place. Hang onto that cell phone or printer a while longer, Rausseo advised, rather than replacing it on an almost seasonal basis.
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