On July 15th, 2015 – Junk That Funk was accepted into a project run by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Life Cycle Initiative. We’d responded to an international call for participation in a road test of new environmental performance evaluation guidelines. The call claimed to favour the participation of small medium enterprises (SMEs), as none had yet tried out the UNEP/SETAC’s … Read more »
June 2015 was a busy month for us. We picked up just over 45,000 lbs. of electronic waste. That’s about 20 tons of e-waste diverted from landfills in Ottawa. You might be wondering what we collected. Well…here goes… 60% of the e-waste collected were old computer monitors and televisions. 20% was DVD, CD and VHS players and other miscellaneous and associated e-waste of those items. 15% were old computer towers/ … Read more »
Here it is. Our full E-waste schedule for 2015, but first, maybe some clarification is required…. What is an E-waste event? Electronic E-waste round up events are put on by Junk That Funk in efforts to reduce recyclable materials ending up landfills. E-waste round up events are designed to be a hassle free drop off site where you can assure your items will be 100% recycled! At our free drop … Read more »
Bait & Switch: a sales tactic in which a customer is attracted by the advertisement of a low-priced item but is then encouraged to buy a higher-priced one In this case, it’s less of encouragement to purchase something of a higher value, and more like just fraud. Late last year, a Vancouver franchisee of a junk removal company was caught on camera overcharging customers by a significant percentage. Amy Savoie … Read more »
Came across this great article in Wired Online, that outlines just how much a growing issue consumer electronic e-waste is becoming. The manufacturers of a lot of our favourite items aren’t making things any easier, either. Some 41.5 million tons of electronic waste was generated in 2011, and that number is expected to rise to 93.5 million by 2016, according to the research firm MarketsandMarkets. Right now, 70 to 80 percent … Read more »
Canada is a vast expanse. We’re rich in natural landscape, unfettered by the encroachment of civilization. We live in a massive country with a tremendous amount of boreal forest and nature. Unfortunately, as a nation, we have some issues with trashing our woods and forests. The CBC published a very interesting article on this last week, and it’s a bit sobering to say the least. They even included a series … Read more »
Staggering statistic time. 40 million tons of e-waste is discarded globally each year, with only about 13 percent currently undergoing some form of recycling: The rest winds up in the trash and landfills. To put this into perspective – NASA and private enterprise is staging and financing eventual trips to asteroids for rare earth metals. Elements like palladium, copper, nickel, and tungsten. We’re using so much of this stuff in … Read more »
We’re involved in another E-Waste Collection and Roundup on Saturday June 7th, 2014. It’s going down at the Jim Durrell complex on Walkley, and we’re looking to collect another few tons of everything from old computers, electronics, televisions, VCRs and DVD players, and any other electronic waste that’s just taking up space in your home of office. At our last event, we ended up collecting over 3 tonnes of material, … Read more »
Carleton University computer science student Michael Lutaaya was intent on creating a practical app that was useful for the city’s residents. He had his Eureka moment when his parents mixed up their garbage day schedule during a holiday week. He developed BINS, an app you can download in the Apple’s iOS store for your iPhone or iPad. The app helps Ottawa’s residents with knowing when and what to put out … Read more »
We all use cell phones, tablets, DVD players, and desktop computers. These are just a few electronic items that we employ in our every day lives – however – have you ever thought about where these things end up when we throw them in the trash? Check out the above map to find out! Canada generated 860,000 tonnes of e-waste in 2012. Toxic chemicals in electronics products can … Read more »