When Accu-Shred Ltd. started destroying old computers nearly 15 years ago, its customers were mainly businesses that wanted to rid themselves of old equipment and be certain that data from the discarded hard drives could not be recovered.
In 1993, the environmental impact of such electronic waste was not a pressing concern.
Today those views are changing and businesses have become more conscious of the issue, says Scott Hurren, Accu-Shred's business development manager. "Some of the companies that we're dealing with are starting to take the environment more seriously," he notes.
While concerns about the ever-growing mountains of electronic waste have been discussed for a few years now, the perception has been that proponents of change were "mostly characterized as from the left or environmentalists," says John Ruffolo, national leader of the technology, media and telecommunications practice at consulting firm Deloitte & Touche in Toronto.
Those issues are now mainstream, Mr. Ruffolo adds, and technology companies, particularly makers of computers and such peripheral devices as printers, wish to be perceived as environmentally friendly.
It's a shift on which Accu-Shred, among others, has capitalized as the increasing environmental awareness has allowed electronic recycling businesses to expand rapidly.
The Mississauga-based company recently set up a new website (http://www.saveourplanet.ca), focused on the environmental impact of discarded technology. Accu-Shred invites consumers to drop off their old electronic devices, charging modest fees to dispose of old gear.
The company's clientele also includes businesses, but Mr. Hurren explains contract obligations and security precautions prevent him from revealing the client list. Big customers pay varying rates, based on weight and volume, he says.
Despite the boom in private recyclers, the real environmental impact comes from the growing efforts of technology companies, which are now taking recycling efforts global.
Several major electronics manufacturers recently joined the United Nations in establishing a global program to develop plans and international standards for electronics recycling called Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP).
"The waste generation of these appliances has really grown dramatically," says Jaco Huisman, a researcher at Delft University in the Netherlands and adviser to the StEP project. Some materials in the old equipment - such as gold, palladium and indium - are scarce and valuable, so recovering them is doubly important.
Major personal computer vendors such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. now collect used equipment for recycling. Printer manufacturers accept ink and toner cartridges for recycling. Frances Edmonds, director of environmental programs at Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd. in Mississauga, says all HP laser cartridges now come with instructions for returning the old cartridge, while many ink jet cartridges come with postage-paid envelopes for returning empties.
The vendors outsource this recycling to companies like Accu-Shred, though they don't identify the specific contractors they use.
Cellphone manufacturers and carriers have also put more focus on recycling. The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, for example, is a non-profit, public service organization dedicated to rechargeable battery and cellphone recycling. More than 50,000 retail, business, and community collection locations participate in RBRC's program. Anyone can drop used phones and batteries into RBRC's drop boxes in cellphone and electronics stores across North America.
Susan Antler, Canadian program director for RBRC, says all Canadian mobile carriers participate in the battery recycling program, though some recycle phones independently using third-party recyclers.
In Winnipeg, for instance, high school students collect old cellphones, pagers and phone accessories for Manitoba Telephone Services Inc., which sells them to Cambridge, Ont.-based recycling firm Greentec International Inc. and then donates the proceeds to charity.
Like Accu-Shred, Greentec has existed since the mid-1990s but is now riding the boom in electronics recycling. The company grew about 35 per cent last year, president and chief executive officer Tony Perrotta says. Return programs of electronics manufacturers account for much of this.
A few years ago, Mr. Perrotta says, consumers and businesses wanted to dispose of old electronics responsibly but wouldn't pay even a small fee to do so. Now, with environmental concerns growing, they are more willing to pay to dispose of obsolete equipment properly.
That awareness is good for companies like Accu-Shred and Greentec, not to mention the environment.
