County concerned about e-waste collection

By Carolyn Sloan

The Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

The province’s ban on electronic waste from landfills is causing complications for waste collection in Annapolis County.

As of February 1, Nova Scotians are required to recycle old electronic equipment such as televisions, computers, monitors, printers, mice, keyboards, and cables, by dropping them off at e-waste collection facilities throughout the province. There are currently four collection centres in the Annapolis-Digby region, including locations in Greenwood, New Minas, Lequille, and Digby.

As a result of the ban, Valley Waste Resource Management will no longer be collecting electronic waste during spring and fall pick-ups, and this has the county concerned about the loss of service to its residents. With only one drop-off centre in Annapolis County, councillors predict that more e-waste will end up in illegal dump sites.

COUNCIL CONCERNED

At the February session of council, several even questioned whether or not to approve the 2008-09 capital and operating budgets for Valley Waste Resource Management Authority given a lack of provisions for continuing the collection electronic waste, despite the new regulations.

“I will be voting against the budget,” said councillor Wayne Fowler. “I still think it’s up to Valley Waste to make sure they (electronic waste items) get to the depots.”

“I think it’s important for us to take our arms-length service provider and to hold them accountable,” added councillor Peter Terauds. “We owe it to our citizens to have a solution that they can live with and we can live with.

“I just can’t pass a budget that has so much lacking.”

Council’s representative on the Valley Waste board, deputy warden Reg Ritchie, said that he sympathized with the councillors’ frustration, but urged them to pass the budgets, noting that the waste management organization is sensitive to such concerns.

“I can certainly bring this [concern] forward to Valley Waste,” said Richie. “We could likely make arrangements.

“I just urge you to consider passing the budget because that’s the only way to go forward here.”

In the end, the motion to approve the budgets was passed with six in favour and four opposed. A second motion was passed to send a letter to Valley Waste expressing their concerns. A couple of councillors suggested that the funds to create a curbside e-waste program may already be available. With the electronics ban, there will be money saved from not having to dispose of e-waste, they argued.

In East Hants, the municipal government has already taken strides to continue the collection of electronic equipment as a service to its residents. Through a public-private partnership, electronic material is picked up at the curb as a recyclable and taken to the local enviro-depot. Given the way in which they structure collection, there is no additional cost to the municipality to do so.

SIMILAR CONCERNS

Valley Waste’s policy coordinator Brian Van Rooyen says that municipalities across the province are dealing with the same concerns as in Annapolis County. Even the industry group leading the e-waste recycling initiative, the Atlantic Canada Electronics Stewardship Program, is aware of the challenges posed by the program and have held a number of meetings to discuss these issues.

“The level of convenience [of the program] isn’t as great as we would have liked,” says Van Rooyen. “I know ACES is very aware of all these concerns.”

Part of the challenge of collecting e-waste for recycling is that it must arrive at the depots relatively undamaged. As all the electronic materials are dismantled by hand, ACES has requested that the items be more or less in tact.

Items placed by the curb for spring and fall clean-ups are collected in a compactor truck, which would not be suitable for the collection of electronics. Even bi-weekly collections of recyclables, organics and garbage are subject to mechanical manipulation, Van Rooyen explains, and any electronics put into the mix would be subject to damage.

He notes that since the last session of council, the waste authority has met and discussed the issues for Annapolis County. The letter written by the county will be forwarded to the other municipalities that are part of Valley Waste, and from this, it is hoped that discussion between the authority and its partners will be generated for the next board meeting in March.

“We’re just sort of monitoring the situation to see how things go,” says Van Rooyen. “We’re just keeping our eyes and ears open.”

As for saving money from not having to dispose of e-waste, he’s not sure that it will be a significant amount. While the collection and disposal of residential waste is paid for by the taxpayer, with commercial waste, the management authority receives $98 a tonne in tipping fees, $82 of which covers the cost of disposal. Therefore, if there is less waste to be disposed of due to the recycling of electronics, they also receive less revenue.

“If we don’t receive a material at all, we don’t get the cost, but we don’t get the revenue either,” Van Rooyen explains.

On the plus side, Valley Waste will receive greater diversion credit based on keeping more material out of the landfill, he says, but just how much will be diverted by recycling electronics is still unknown.

E-WASTE

IN NOVA SCOTIA

-- It is estimated that Nova Scotians dispose of more than 4500 tonnes of electronic waste each year. In the absence of a recycling program, this number would be expected to increase to 5000 tonnes by 2010. Electronic products contain hazardous materials such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and certain flame retardants. When disposed, they can threaten environmental and human health.

-- In the first year of the electronics recycling program, recyclable products will be limited to TVs, computers, laptops, keyboards, mice, cables, monitors, and printers. In the second year, this list of electronic products will expand to include scanners, audio and video playback and recording systems, telephones, fax machines, and handheld wireless devises including cell phones.

-- The electronics recycling program is an industry-led initiative of the Atlantic Canada Electronics Stewardship Association. ACES was established in November 2007 by the Electronics Product Stewardship Canada and the Retail Council of Canada to deliver the Electronics Stewardship Program in Nova Scotia. With the approval of the provincial government, the non-profit association is now responsible for the entire electronics recycling program in Nova Scotia, which is administered by RRFB Nova Scotia.