Manitoba non-profit urges safe recycling of electronics to protect environment

Manitoba environmental advocates are sounding the alarm about the importance of recycling old electronics and the ramifications to the environment if they aren’t disposed of properly.

“Once it’s in the landfill, it gets crushed and the items that are safe inside are now exposed to the elements,” said Dennis Neufeld, program director at Electronic Products Recycling Association. “We need to keep them out of the landfill, so we create convenient locations for people to drop off and then we recycle them properly once we get them.”

Neufeld says the non-profit’s work is essential to keeping toxic materials from harming nature and humans.

“Old tube cell TVs that are still out there have leaded glass in them, the early flatscreen TVs have mercury gas in them, so there’s stuff inside there that needs to be kept out of landfills,” said Neufeld.

“Improperly disposed electronics can lead to local ecosystems, to our lands and our waters, through the release of heavy metals or even microplastics themselves if they’re not disposed breaking down in the environment,” said James Beddome, executive director at Manitoba Eco-network.

In addition, the organization recycles precious metals like steel, copper, and aluminum, and puts them back into the marketplace, which reduces the harmful mining process.

Neufeld says the organization has depots around the province, which can be found by visiting the Electronic Products Recycling Association website. There’s no charge to drop off electronics for recycling.

“And then what ends up happening is we go through the process of breaking it down, we talked about, recapturing the good stuff, looking after the bad stuff, that’s all done right here in the province, and it’s very easy,” said Neufeld.