[kwlug-disc] Free e-waste drop off?

[Charles McColm]

On Tue, 2010-12-14 at 15:40 -0500, unsolicited wrote:
> Note - this didn't used to be the case. Charles was so full of junk at 
> one point that he had to stop taking anything less than a P4. IIRC, 
> that policy has now been rescinded. [But doesn't mean they're going to 

Thanks to both Bills. Actually we never stopped taking in items before,
but there was a time where we had to charge people for dropping off
items. We HATED it because originally Computer Recycling was as it is
now - it didn't cost us if we needed to recycle parts like CRT monitors.

Around 2006 things changed and most of the downstream we used had either
folded or started charging us for items they used to give us money for.
(It was never a lot). Some of the fees were pretty high, as much as $30
for 1 CRT (22" CRT for example). Of course before we had a lot coming in
and were happy to get CRTs because we used to get $1 or $2 for them, but
when this switch happened we had to slow down what came in.

What has made our (Refurbishers) lives much easier is the Ontario
Electronic Stewardship. It's that hated computer tax you all pay on new
computer items. That small amount of money goes to the OES
not-for-profit group who organize all the small and large OES drop off
sites. They're the ones responsible for turning around this whole
charging for dropping off items thing. So as much as the tax may seem to
hurt the wallet when you're buying new hardware, it ensures there's a
free place to drop stuff off in the future.