E-waste Not, Want Not

Under a federal government Standing Offer initiative that began Feb. 22, 2010, Barrie, Ontario-based Global Electric Electronic Processing (GEEP) has been receiving and recycling end-of-life electronics the government could not distribute elsewhere for re-use or have recycled under provincial programs.

GEEP processes more than 100,000 tons of electric and electronic equipment per year in 11 locations in Canada, the United States, Costa Rica and Germany. The company also data secures and remarkets more than 600,000 electronic products per year.

By the end of this March, which marks the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal year, GEEP had received 251 tons of electronics. The federal government estimates that up to 2,205 tons of e-scrap could be recycled annually through this Standing Offer. This would roughly double, to some 2,410 tons, the amount of equipment it is directing already to re-use and recycling.
 

Encouraging Re-Use & Recycling
The 1985 Surplus Crown Assets Act provides for the re-use of government assets, including transfer to another department, charitable donation and sale to the public. In 1993 Industry Canada established the Computers for Schools (CFS) program. The Surplus Crown Assets Act requires all federal organizations to first offer information technology equipment to CFS before disposing of these devices by any other means. The 2006 Treasury Board Directive on Disposal of Surplus Material states, "Departments must offer right of first refusal of all surplus personal computers, laptops, servers, monitors, keyboards, mice, printers, modems, hubs, network cards, hard drives, etc., to the Industry Canada Computers for Schools Program."

Other re-use options include interdepartmental transfer, charitable donation and sale to the public. When all re-use options for these assets have been exhausted, government departments may dispose of them. This must be done in an environmentally sustainable manner, according to the 2006 Treasury Board Directive of Disposal of Surplus Materials. For electronics, this is accomplished through the use of provincial e-scrap recycling programs and now, the Standing Offer for e-waste recycling services.

There are no provisions for directing e-scrap to landfill sites, according to Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), which introduced the new measures under the Standing Offer last year for recycling surplus federal electronic and electrical equipment. "Directing e-waste to landfill is not considered a sustainable practice," a PWGSC spokesperson says.

Seven provinces (See sidebar, "Mapping the Programs,") already recycle some electronics, and Québec is reported to have announced an e-recycling program earlier this year.
 

Falling between the Cracks
Some e-scrap, however, does not qualify for CFS or the provincial recycling programs, which is where the Standing Offer comes in. "The establishment of the Standing Offer ensured that departments had a complete set of mechanisms available to dispose of all government of Canada e-waste, regardless of equipment type, in an environmentally sound manner," the PWGSC spokesperson explains. "In provinces without programs and for equipment types that are not accepted by provincial programs, federal departments are instructed to dispose of their e-waste through the Standing Offer for E-waste Recycling Services. This ensures that all federal e-waste is disposed of in an environmentally sound and secure manner," the spokesperson adds.

PWGSC says it expects that a wide range of equipment will be recycled under the Standing Offer, including information technology equipment, audio-visual and laboratory equipment, appliances and electric tools.

"This equipment is usually much older and bigger," Chris Gariepy, senior vice president, international business development, GEEP, says. "It may have been stored for a few years. It is shipped to us in bulk." He adds, "It wouldn't be a recycling challenge, but [they simply] do not qualify under the provincial programs. GEEP can process anything with a power cord, battery capability or a circuit board. We process a lot of electric products."

The conditions for becoming an approved recycler for the federal government are very strict and include an audit, Gariepy says. "The bottom line is not to create any liability for the government of Canada—[to ensure] that we are doing what we are saying we are doing, so there are no risks for the government of Canada. Part of the reason for the audit is to make sure there is no exposure for the government of Canada. We are required to show them our downstream [processors]. This is part of the audit protocol and their due diligence."

Gariepy adds, "It is not a positive brand treatment to see a big red sticker on the back of a computer on a third-world beach with government of Canada or any OEM name on it.

"Through our audited processes we guarantee our clients that e-waste product will not be shipped illegally," he says.

Another concern is the security of data that may reside on any devices sent for recycling. GEEP uses various tools designed to ensure data security. "One of the largest concerns for Fortune 500 accounts is the data on the computers," Gariepy notes.

In addition to submitting to a comprehensive, third-party quality assurance audit before PWGSC issued it the Standing Offer, GEEP has to pass periodic environmental audits throughout the duration of the Standing Offer. The original length of the contract is two-years, with an optional extension of one year. GEEP is currently the only approved processor under the Standing Offer.

Although this is GEEP's first federal deal for recycling end-of-life electronics, GEEP is an approved processor for every provincial electronics recycling program except the Atlantic Canada Electronics Stewardship program, to which Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island belong.

E-scrap from the provincial programs in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are shipped to GEEP's approved processor in Edmonton, Alberta. E-scrap collected under Ontario's Electronics Stewardship initiative is shipped to GEEP's primary processing plant in Barrie.

Although GEEP has an audited logistics team for transporting e-scrap, the federal government is responsible for trucking end-of-life electronics under the Standing Offer to the GEEP processing plants.

GEEP would not divulge how many tons of e it processes from all of its Canadian customers, but, Alyson Hall, GEEP global account manager for the government of Canada Standing Offer, says, "We can handle considerably more than the government of Canada and the provincial programs together give us."

Despite a number of e-scrap recovery initiatives in Canada in addition to the provincial programs and the Standing Offer, a vast amount of electronic devices still go straight to landfill sites.

As for the potential for the electronics recycling industry in Canada, Hall says: "If you recycled all the e-waste in Canada, we would not be able to handle it. We would be happily overwhelmed."

The author is a freelance writer based in Québec, Canada. He can be contacted at mccfreetransport@hotmail.com.