news
October 22, 2008
Feds scrap 2,000 tonnes of electronic waste yearly: report
OTTAWA – The federal government scraps more than 2,000 tonnes of computers, fax machines, monitors and other gear each year, says a newly released report.
But it will be another year and a half before Ottawa launches a recycling program to safely dispose of the toxic junk.
An internal Public Works Department report says the government produces 2,045 tonnes of electronic waste each year. That's roughly the weight of 225 school buses.
"The federal government is one of the largest single generators of end-of-life IT equipment in Canada," says the report.
"There is no comprehensive mechanism in the federal government to address environmentally responsible disposal of IT equipment."
The report, dated August 2007 and marked secret, was prepared by the Public Works office dedicated to greening government operations. The Canadian Press obtained it through the Access to Information Act.
Canada's environment commissioner says the federal government spends $500 million every year on new computer hardware.
These electronics contain toxic elements such as lead, cadmium and mercury, which can cause environmental and health problems if not handled properly.
Currently, 80 to 90 per cent of used government electronics go to a federal program that refurbishes them and then sends them to schools and libraries. The rest is sold to recyclers and scrap dealers.
Officials from Industry Canada, the department that oversees Computers for Schools, said the program received 80,874 federal computers in 2007-08. Of those, 78,102 computers were sent to schools and the rest were harvested for parts or stockpiled.
The Computers for Schools agreement requires schools and libraries to dispose of donated electronics in accordance with provincial laws and in "the most environmentally sound manner available."
It doesn't take long for computer equipment to become obsolete, said Rod Muir, a waste diversion campaigner for the Sierra Club of Ontario.
"It sounds to me as though (the government is) not following up nearly as well as they could be in terms of what happens to it after the schools they give it to are done with it," he said.
"My concern, of course, would be, now we start shipping it over to Africa or some Third World country who may be now three generations of equipment behind.
"But two years later, what do they do with it?"
The United Nations estimates that between 20 and 50 million tonnes of electronic waste is generated worldwide each year.
Electronic garbage often ends up in the poorer Asian and African countries, where workers and the environment are exposed to the accompanying toxins.
Achim Steiner, head of the UN environment program, recently told a conference in Bali, Indonesia, the growth in electronics is unlikely to abate any time soon.
Earlier this year, The Canadian Press reported the government plans to launch a recycling program to dispose of its electronics responsibly.
However, the program — estimated to cost between $30 and $35 million over five years — won't be in place until March 2010.
This latest Public Works report says the government plans to phase in its recycling program by starting with computer equipment and expanding in the third year to electronics, including BlackBerrys and televisions.
Electronic waste is the first part of a broader strategy to dispose of other government assets, from ships to furniture, the report says.
Meantime, electronics recycling is piecemeal across the country.
The Alberta government has run an electronic waste recycling program since 2005. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia have industry-run programs. A similar program in Ontario will begin next April.
The other provinces rely on municipal drives, charities, retail take-back programs and private companies to safely dispose of electronic waste.
"Electronics recycling infrastructure is developing but currently poorly distributed and operating standards are unclear," the report says.
