TORONTO— Sally Tron, marketing and events coordinator for Electronics Recycling Association, (ERA) helps to coordinate and allocate electronics for refurbishing that eventually will be donated back into the community.
Organizations such as local public libraries, who often cannot afford to replace outdated computers are able to visit ERA’s website fill out a request form for electronics that they need, and once they are approved, they make a wait list.
Tran describes the process. “We allocate electronics for refurbishing, pick these up from businesses willing to donate them, and refurbish the items which we eventually donate to a charity of their choice, or ones pending on our donations list,” explained Tran.
As donations coordinator, Tran described ERA’s main focus is to address the growing problem of waste. Instead of disposing of older, used electronic equipment such as computers, they work at encouraging businesses who are replacing these with new items, to donate them to a charity of their choice.
According to Tran, ERA has a list of more than 1,000 charities and non-for-profit organizations across Canada waiting for donated refurbished electronics.
One such organization is Marathon, Ontario’s Public Library. It continues to face the challenges associated with using outdated computers, and essentially struggle to provide the daily services that so many members of their community depend on.
Library assistant, Mitchell Hatton described the situation that historically the library has been in. “A lot of our library electronic equipment is donated from organizations in the community. But they so come to us with outdated software which causes us to redo them,” explained Hatton.
Once Marathon’s Public Library became a member with the national program known as Electronics Recycling Association, it was possible for the library to access more organizations and businesses who were willing to donate their computers to them. In addition, once the library could no longer use them, ERA would help them dispose of them at a depot in Thunder Bay, free of charge.
ERA has been around since 2004, and is located in operating cities like Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. Tran explained that ERA does donate to areas that they don’t locally service, such as rural communities in locations such as Alberta, British Columbia and Marathon, Ontario. Donations for the city of Marathon would come from their operating location in Toronto.
To continue supplying organization in need of electronic equipment, Tran organizes collection events during which time local businesses and organization are encouraged to donate their used electronics for their refurbishing program. “Once these items are donated, ERA takes them, refurbishes and everything is processed in Calgary, and then sent out to locations in need,” stated Tran. She indicated also how they work with local Chamber of Commerce who help them organize collection events in their communities.
In terms of what costs organizations in need would face to acquire donated, electronics, Tran explained that they have two standard donation levels. “So, we do have two standard donations. If the organization wants the standard donation, such as a laptop with a lower ram or slower hard drive, then the item is given at no cost to them. If they want high-end- products for example, laptops and desktops, where the hard drive is faster, there is a donation required,” explained Tran.
Ultimately, ERA plays a dual role. It addresses the problem of waste materials that results from the disposal of used and old electronics, and facilitates the matching of materials that an organization like the Marathon Public Library, who needs electronic equipment, that normally would be much more expensive to attain.