Upper Oakville Shopping Centre recently held their first e-waste event in partnership with Golden Horseshoe Green Tech and electronics recycler Greentec.
“We’ve been talking to Greentec for quite a while and finally decided to have the first event on the weekend of June 17,” Megan Richardson said – manager of the Upper Oakville Shopping Centre.
“It was a huge success. I really was overwhelmed by the tweets and re-tweets we received. I knew it was going to be really successful just because of the amount of interest that it was generating,” said Richardson.
Members of the community were invited to drop off their e-waste and have it disposed of responsibly by Greentec. 54,000 pounds of electronic waste was collected which included old electronics, television sets, computers, printers and ink cartridges.
“The event did really well in Oakville,” said Alicia Stepaniuk, Marketing and Events Coordinator for Greentec.
“Oakville doesn’t have a solution that is easily accessible. The feedback that I got is that people didn’t really know what to do with their items. This was a great spot for people to easily drop off their e-waste.”
“At the same time we’re supporting a good cause with the Golden Horseshoe,” she said. “That group does a lot of work with youth in the community. The residents of Oakville were happy to get rid of some of their junk to support a good cause, and we rebated the Golden Horseshoe with $5000.”
Greentec first started recycling electronic waste in 1995, with their headquarters in Cambridge and another location in Barrie. They have over 145 events planned up until the month of October. As for a return to Oakville, they will be returning to the Upper Oakville Shopping Centre on September 8.
“We abide by the very strict environmental regulations around processing e-waste,” said Stepaniuk.
“Anything from cell phones to print cartridges all the way up to big televisions and computers. From there it goes into the different processing stations and goes through various steps to brake down the bigger items into its separate components,” she said.
“A computer will be broken down into little bits, and from there it will go into its different processing stations. If it’s plastic it will go into our shredder here, then it would go into our downstream. We work with a variety of different people that will take those small bits of plastic and circuit boards and then turn it around and make it into something new. It could end being a water bottle or a new case for a new computer.”
Stepaniuk encourages residents of Oakville to come and drop off even more e-waste at their next event in September. It beats a trip to the local dump, and is another way to give back to the community. She encourages everyone to check out the Greentec website and their Think Recycle program.
“We’ve joined up with a lot of different people,” she said. “Everything we collect at the events is processed here and is typically kept in North America for refurbishment.”
For more information visit upperoakvilleshoppingcentre.ca and www.greentec.com.
Tags: e-waste, recycling, UOSC
About the author: Michael Burton
Michael is journalist with experience in publishing, news writing and the magazine industry. He graduated from Sheridan College and is the former editor of TRAVIS magazine.
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