I worked for a non profit computer recycling facility in the Comox Valley in BC. The reason why you would need to charge a recycling fee would be to pay the recyclers their 8bux an hour, and help cover the shipping costs of all the materials once they were sorted and packaged as best as we could. Being a non profit, we did things on the cheap and some things were not as safe as it should have been (like crushing monitor glass). I know that if we had more money, things would have been done with more concern for safety (breathing in old photocopier toner and monitor glass dust is pretty terrifying... I am pretty sure my little paper mask didn't save the day)
Ewaste is a huge problem. There are many dangerous chemicals in electronics and without a place to properly dispose of them, it goes to the landfill. Our main goals were to keep it out of the landfill, and keep it out of China. We sent most of our sorted recyclables to Vancouver to a prison that had a computer recycling program (for further sorting), and from there they went all over north America.
There is NOT A LOT OF MONEY in this. Plastic sold for a few cents a pound, and was a huge hassle to package and ship. Sure, you can say "what about the gold on the processors" but computers are mostly steel and plastic, and very little gold. Sadly that little operation shut down due to lack of funding. This program is exactly what BC needs. People don't think about their waste in this disposable society, and if it takes money to make them consider it, I say it's worth it. This sort of tax is similar to the car battery or tire tax, the money just helps keep the programs funded to properly dispose of the waste.
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I worked for a non profit computer recycling facility in the Comox Valley in BC. The reason why you would need to charge a recycling fee would be to pay the recyclers their 8bux an hour, and help cover the shipping costs of all the materials once they were sorted and packaged as best as we could. Being a non profit, we did things on the cheap and some things were not as safe as it should have been (like crushing monitor glass). I know that if we had more money, things would have been done with more concern for safety (breathing in old photocopier toner and monitor glass dust is pretty terrifying... I am pretty sure my little paper mask didn't save the day)
Ewaste is a huge problem. There are many dangerous chemicals in electronics and without a place to properly dispose of them, it goes to the landfill. Our main goals were to keep it out of the landfill, and keep it out of China. We sent most of our sorted recyclables to Vancouver to a prison that had a computer recycling program (for further sorting), and from there they went all over north America.
There is NOT A LOT OF MONEY in this. Plastic sold for a few cents a pound, and was a huge hassle to package and ship. Sure, you can say "what about the gold on the processors" but computers are mostly steel and plastic, and very little gold. Sadly that little operation shut down due to lack of funding. This program is exactly what BC needs. People don't think about their waste in this disposable society, and if it takes money to make them consider it, I say it's worth it. This sort of tax is similar to the car battery or tire tax, the money just helps keep the programs funded to properly dispose of the waste.