A commercial entity in Ontario requires an MOE (Ministry of The Environment) licence to transport building and construction waste. You heard right. A business must have an environmental approval from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, if it releases pollutants into the air, land or water OR if it stores, transports or disposes of waste. Junk removal and recycling is a dirty business. That’s why it’s important to … Read more »
2016 ended up being our most successful year with respect to our e-waste events. Without a doubt, 2016 was our busiest year in E-waste. We hosted a total of 23 events for all of last year, with a record of just over 5500 drops offs, and an average of about 250 people per event. We collected and recycled a grand total of 184.5 tons (369,000 lbs) of e-waste from the 23 events. … Read more »
“Art is a great way for the public and volunteers to get into environmentalism.” The Gowanus E-Waste Warehouse—a part of the Lower East Side Ecology Center – is doing something very, very cool. Yazmine Mihojevich, one of the warehouse’s program directors, organized something called “Excavation Wednesday”. It’s an event that allows members of the public to come to the facility and disassemble donated e-waste in an effort to educate the citizenry on … Read more »
The U.S. might be dumping up to 20% of their electronic waste in Asia. Came across this interesting piece in Time last month. Wouldn’t you know it…but up to 20% of American E-waste might in fact be ending up in Hong Kong, of all places. The conclusion stems from an investigation by Basel Action Network (BAN), a U.S.-based NGO focused on protecting the world’s environment from toxic materials. The assessment and … Read more »
There Is An Environmental Cost With The Devices We Depend On Some of the biggest news in the last month has come from the consumer electronics industry. Samsung’s venerable Galaxy Note 7, arguably one of the world’s most popular smart phone phablets, has run into a series of battery issues. Customers were reporting that the phone’s batteries were exploding or combusting randomly during charging. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued on September … Read more »
Came across this great piece in the Kingston Whig Standard. Students at Kingston’s Rideau Heights Public School were taught the value of recycling their used tablets and smartphones through an in-class presentation by the Ontario Electronic Stewardship in a “Recycle Your Electronics” campaign. The school program used both video games and interactive presentations to engage fifth-grade students and educate them on ways to reduce e-waste, as well as the consequences of landfilling it. … Read more »
Annie Leonard has been schooling us on landfill waste, electronic waste, and general environmental irresponsibility since 2010. Her famous “The Story of Stuff” video was a well articulated and accurate rundown of how we affect the planet and the environment through nothing other than our habits of consumer consumption. The film concludes with a call for a green ‘race to the top’ where designers compete to make long-lasting, toxic-free products that … Read more »
What does a small junk removal company in Ottawa and the Mexican central bank have in common? This. Setting the right system boundaries As we move along with doing the ol-cah pol-cah at Junk That Funk, our discussions with the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative have focused on the first draft of our Goal and Scope document. The highlight of the feedback so far has been about our definition of system boundaries – … Read more »
India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Much like in Canada, our cell phones and smartphones serve as a status symbol and facilitate our growing obsession and dependence on the web. Currently in third place, India is expected to become the world’s second largest cellphone market by 2017 (overtaking the U.S. and running second only to China). The Indian Telecom Regulatory Agency recently announced the nation has crossed the billion mark in mobile … Read more »
The world has an electronic waste problem. This isn’t news, and we’ve been talking about this kind of thing for a while. Environmental Handling Fees (EHFs) are charged on the sale and distribution of all new electronic products regulated in Ontario. Paid at the time of purchase, the fee reflects the actual program cost to collect, transport and responsibly recycle each electronic category the end of its useful life. The … Read more »