Day 84: A Holiday Gift to the Planet

Every morning I walk my dogs on a similar route and every morning for the past 2 months I have walked past an old printer that someone “kindly” dump on the sidewalk under a bush. I had been meaning to do something about it since the first day I saw it but I have just kept walking past it.

Our brains know the right thing to do but our busy lives or “convenient” schedules do not allow for the time to actually do something that is inconvenient. Today was the day I was going to stop, pick it up and dispose of it in an appropriate manner so it wouldn’t go into a land fill and seep it’s toxic remains into our poor planet.

Day 84: Give 84

When it rains it pours.

Over the weekend, I was just about to head out to attend the very first fundraiser for 365give and my printer died on me. I knew this was about to happen as I had been having problems with it for some time. I decided to bite the bullet and go get myself a new printer. Fortunately it is “sale time” in the stores and I got just the printer that would fulfill my needs for a great price. Now I had to dispose of my old printer and an old computer tower I had been putting off disposing it and had hidden it in my basement for the past year.

It was at that moment the printer hidden in the bushes came into my mind. If I was going to be responsible enough to recycle my old computer equipment I could take 5 extra minutes out of my day and get that dumped printer out of our neighbourhood. I loaded up the car and took a drive down the street with my 3 year old to find that printer. It’s always fun trying to explain to a 3 year old why you are picking garbage off the streets and even more challenging when it’s a large piece of electronic equipment. Today I took a fresh angel on the garbage issue and recycling.

I explained to my son that if we don’t take the time to pick up our garbage that our neighbourhood would not only be a mess but the garbage would hurt the ocean. He understood this as we live so close to the water and swim in it all summer. It is something he can comprehend. I asked him if he knew the names of any animals that lived in the ocean and he started reeling them off. Sea otters, dolphins, seals, whales, stingrays and of course Nemo. I told him if we didn’t keep our planet and oceans clean it would be like the fish are swimming in a dirty pool or bath every day. He completely understood. You have to love the minds of children and how fast the absorb information. If only as adults we would do the same.

I did do my homework first to discover exactly where I could take the computer equipment to recycle it safely and responsibly. We have a company here in Vancouver called Encorp that recycles just about everything. I had to go 10 minutes down the road to the Salvation Army Thrift Store. They have partnered with Encorp and will take all your broken down parts and pieces. I also decided to do a little research to find electronic recycling depots in other major cities across Canada so it will be easy for everyone to recycle your computer and electronics this holiday season.

I came across a great company I will use in the future – I have both a cell phone and old laptop I have been wanting to donate. The Electronic Recycling Association. (ERA) is the place you can do this. Here is their mission.

“To reduce electronic waste and the negative impact it has on our environment. To reuse unwanted computers and related electronic equipment through recovery, refurbishment and computer donating services.

Refurbished computer recycling, laptops and equipment through donation to charities and non-profit community organizations.

Their reach goes across Canada and not only will you feel good you have recycle but you are donating to an organization that takes the old and makes it a useful for people that otherwise may not have any computer access. Here are all the locations:

Toronto Barrie Calgary Vancouver Victoria Montreal Dartmouth Edmonton

Time Commitment: 5 minutes (to stop and garbage pick the printer)

Cost: 0