Windsor, West Hants left out of e-waste loop

By Jennifer Hoegg

The Hants Journal/NovaNewsNow.com

Richard Dauphinee is less than impressed. The West Hants warden can’t believe his constituents have been left out of the province’s e-waste strategy, so far. “It upset me. I never feel good when our residents are left out.”

Electronic waste such as computers and televisions are banned from provincial landfills as of Feb. 1. Leading up to the ban, a large number of collection depots were announced in late-January -- none of them in the Windsor area.

Dauphinee is unhappy that he has to tell residents that there is nowhere nearby for them to drop off materials. “I have to answer the questions, so do my staff and councillors (and tell residents that the) closest drop off place is Chester, Sackville, New Minas.”

Nova Scotia’s Resource Recovery Fund Board (RRFB) is administering the e-waste collection program for electronics industry group, ACES. RRFB’s CEO Bill Ring explains that a little more time was needed to set up a depot in Windsor. “We went through the evaluation process with a group that did not want to proceeded,” Ring said. After the first choice for a depot operator declined to sign a contract with RRFB, “we went to the second on the list.” That unnamed operator has been in contract negotiations with RRFB.

Ring said Jan. 30 that he hoped to have a depot in place for Windsor within a week and their was “bound to be some hiccups” in a new program.

Not good enough

Dauphinee doesn’t think that’s a good enough answer; the RRFB had plenty of time. “It was announced a year ago and they scrambled the last few days.”

Dauphinee has been looking forward to e-waste collection in his jurisdiction for some time and recently brought up the issue at a regional solid waste meeting. “I was looking for a drop-off point in this area.”

RRFB director of programs and business development Jeff MacCallum promised Feb. 7 that drop-off services will be available in Windsor by Feb. 18. Where that service will be has not been announced and MacCallum says that he cannot release the name until the contract has been finalized.

Ring noted that contracts are complicated because of safety issues around electronic components. “Safety and health requirements for dealing with lead and heavy metals are stringent.”

Ring also pointed out that e-waste recycling is an expensive undertaking.

Dauphinee agrees with Ring on that point, at least. West Hants is unlikely to join its neighboring municipality, East Hants, in collecting electronic waste at the curb, because of the extra cost it would entail for residents. “East Hants is the only one in the province doing curbside collection,” he points out, because “ they were able to do it in coordination with their waste collection contract.”