electronic waste

Today, our Canada Jamboree group, which is made up of Scouts from three different Scout Groups and at least five different communities ran an electronic waste fundraiser.

Basically, you get a couple of shipping containers, put up signs, advertise online, and hope people show up with their unwanted electronics, working, broken, or otherwise. The real cash cow is vehicle batteries.

When you are done, an organisation picks up your bins, weighs them, some other magic probably goes on, then you get a cheque. The batteries we take in ourselves and get a cheque for that too.

We are very grateful for all the donations of electronics and batteries and other sundry items that we can turn in to cash. I am also grateful another Scouter organised it and slapped this particular one together in about a week.

We filled up two shipping containers. That is a lot of electronics. A lot that will not end up in landfills and contaminate soil and the water table. It is a lot of recovered metals, plastics, and whatnot that does not need to be manufactured from additional raw materials.

What absolutely slays me though? The number of times we did heard, "It still works." Not every time, but a lot of the items we got still operated for their intended purpose. Some are outdated and outmoded, but not all. I do truly understand wanting the latest and greatest, but I have a television that is over twelve years old and only now is the tube starting to get funky. Yup! It is a tube tv. We are going to move it to the basement for the boy and his buddies to use.

When I grew up, my dad fixed, or at least tried to fix, everything that broke down and used it until it could not be fixed. He fixed fridges, stoves, freezers, washing machines, dryers, the list goes on. We used to call the tv repair guy.

I am amazed at how conditioned we have become to get new stuff even if the old stuff still works. But that is okay, it helps groups like us looking to raise funds. The recycling programs that do this and thankfully pay cash, put raw materials back in to the manufacturing process without having to secure new sources and scar the planet further.

So, go ahead and buy that latest television, or computer, or video game. But do not chuck the old one in the trash. Take a few minutes and check the local paper or online for an e-waste fundraiser. They are going on all the time, sometimes they will even pick up from you. You are not only helping that group raise money, but you are helping reduce the toxification and pillaging of this planet.

To everyone that does organise, help, and donate to e-waste recovery, whatever your motives, thank-you very much!