‘We don’t need to mine new material’: Manitoba group urges residents to recycle old electronics

A local recycling organization wants Manitobans to recognize Earth Day by keeping their old electronics out of the landfill.

The Electronic Products Recycling Association of Manitoba says it will take just about any old technology off your hands — which will then be broken down in order to extract and reuse valuable materials.

“When we do the breaking down of the material, we’re going to capture the steel, the aluminum, the brass — and we’re going to put all that back into the manufacturing process,” program director Dennis Neufeld told 680 CJOB’s The Start.

“We don’t need to mine new material — we’ve got this material, so it really is a no-brainer that we should be reusing this stuff.”

While the association collects unwanted electronics year-round, Neufeld said Earth Day is a perfect excuse to go through your junk drawers and recycle old equipment at one of 100 drop-off locations across the province.

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Neufeld said while some people might balk at handing over devices — like personal computers — that may have contained sensitive information, the recycling process makes sure none of that can fall into the wrong hands.

“It’s held securely, then it goes to our processing plant, and we physically break down the material to capture what’s inside of there,” he said.

“And when we break it down, we destroy everything that’s inside of there.”

And although they’re best known for recycling old TVs and computers, he said there’s a much wider range of old tech the association is willing to work with.

“Any audio-visual, stereo equipment, even speakers … clock/radios, handhelds — cellphones, home phones, old VHS machines.”

A full list of electronics the association will accept, as well as a list of drop-off locations, is available on its website.

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