Feature Article October 28, 2004
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeContact Us
Sharbot Lake leads in dealing with E-waste - FEWR opens
by Jeff Green
The
grey, wet weather was somehow fitting for the opening of the Frontenac
E-Waste Recovery Centre (FEWR) about a kilometre south of Sharbot Lake
in a recently converted township garage. It was just another obstacle
in a series of obstacles that have been overcome by the Land OLakes
Communications Network (LOLCN) as it struggles to establish this rural
corner of Eastern Ontario as a model for refurbishing and recycling
electronic equipment in a rural setting.
As the 11:00 opening neared, the parking lot began to fill up with cars. Eight of the nine councillors from Central Frontenac attended, as did the Northern Trustee from the Limestone District School Board (LDSB), Ann Goodfellow, and Ron Sharp, the Director of Education with the LDSB. From Ottawa Wayne Tosh arrived from Computers for Schools (Ontario). All told, close to 100 people were on hand for the opening.
Jim MacPherson made a presentation to open the meeting. He outlined the partnerships that have brought the project about. The E-Waste Centre will be the clearing house for used computers and other electronic equipment in partnership with Central Frontenac Township. It is a refurbishing Centre under the Computers for Schools program, and operates as a workshop for students from Sharbot Lake High School, who take hands-on computer classes from Mark Elliott. It also has office space for the Land O Lakes Communications Network, which is involved in a variety of regionally focussed projects.
The opening of the Centre was timed to coincide with Waste Reduction Week in Ontario. Although local MPP Leona Dombrowsky was unable to attend the opening because the Legislature is in session, she talked about electronic waste.
One area where action is needed is electric and electronic products. The scope of these products is vast, from computers and fax machines to CD players and photocopiers. Diverting these materials from disposal means preventing thousands of tonnes of metal, plastic, wiring and harmful chemicals from ending up as waste in a landfill. I intend to designate electronic waste for recycling, and I will shortly ask Waste Diversion Ontario to prepare a plan for this sector, she told the house.
Then she made a specific reference to the E-Waste Centre in Sharbot Lake, In my own riding of Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, the Land O'Lakes Communications Network is setting up the first e-waste recovery centre in eastern Ontario. Coordinator Jim MacPherson is using the experience he gained as a partner in the Computers for Schools program in Sharbot Lake, which has put more than 9,000 discarded computers back into operation.
To this date, however, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment has not funded the efforts of the E-Waste Recovery Centre. While the Minister is supportive, she told the News in an interview three weeks ago, Waste is a municipal matter and will continue to be funded by municipal governments. If, however, the Ministry works with Waste Diversion Ontario, an organisation set up under the former Conservative government, to designate e-waste recovery as a priority and help to make that process economically viable through funding from electronic equipment producers, the Ministry may indirectly provide significant support for e-waste recovery centres that may develop throughout the province.
This will not help the Frontenac E-Waste Centre get through its first year of operations. For help in that regard, it is to federal sources that the LOLCN is looking.
In his remarks, Jim MacPherson thanked the Federal department of Human Resources and Skills Development for their ongoing support. Funding is being sought from Industry Canada as well in order for the E-Waste Centre to survive its first year as a pilot project.
When Central Frontenac Mayor Bill MacDonald addressed the audience, he shed some light on how the funding will be found. Im glad Im not a deer and Jim MacPherson a hunter, because he is relentless in his pursuit, MacDonald said.
Other speakers mentioned how the refurbishing centre that is being incorporated into the e-waste recycling centre has been so successful that the Sharbot Lake Model is an expression used nationally and internationally through the projects that have been set up in Ghana, Guatemala and elsewhere.
In a few years, the E-Waste recovery model being developed on a shoestring budget in Sharbot Lake may have attained the same renown.
