Electronic waste diverted from landfill; workers get new lease on life

Every year, more than 272,000 tonnes of computer equipment, phones, televisions, stereos and small appliances end up in Canadian landfills. That's enough waste to fill five Great Lakes freighters! This figure can only be estimated, and it is quite likely that there is much more. Globally, it is estimated that 50 million tonnes of electronic waste end up in landfills.
That’s because every year, we decide that millions of computers are obsolete. Most of us just replace old machines instead of getting them fixed. But a small and unique enterprise located in Lachute, Québec  is trying to make a dent in those overwhelming statistics.
By gathering, recycling or refurbishing unwanted or outdated computer equipment, RECYPRO - a non-profit organization and a member of Collectif des Entreprises d'Insertion du Québec - extends its useful life while diverting this material from municipal landfill sites.
And there’s more. By offering jobs, training and follow-up support, Recypro’s reintegration program also gives a new lease on life to people facing barriers to full-time employment or having other difficulties integrating into the labour market.
Reycpro takes its unusual dual social and environmental mandate very seriously and is making surprising local progress in the planet’s seemingly impossible battle against e-waste.
“Our planet is becoming more like a small village every day,” says Recypro’s general manager, Veronique Siméon. “We now realize that we have to think twice before dumping garbage into our neighbour’s backyard and we also know we have to think twice about how we support the unemployed members of our community.”
Whether it’s the driver of Recypro’s colourful truck picking up used computer equipment in the region, or the two enthusiastic youths manning a table at Lachute’s popular Tuesday flea market, everyone at Recypro must be taking its “binary” missions to heart. Recypro is the only computer and electronics sorting, dismantling and recovery center to obtain an ISO 14001:2004 certification.
And just as important as keeping your old CRT monitor out of the local landfill is the notion of helping to keep people from 17 years-of-age up to 55 and beyond gainfully employed by giving them valuable employment training at the Recypro plant.
Siméon points out that the organization employs a full-time psycho-social worker who is at the Lachute plant to oversee the trainees’ health and safety. This professional also provides career counseling: working with trainees to establish clear and realistic career paths; helping them to develop professional work habits and behaviour as well as providing support for other job-related tasks such as resumé-creation and the writing of a good cover letter.
Siméon says they try to engage other employers in an ongoing dialogue about their retrained workers.
“We will follow up a placement even two years after an employee has left our plant,” she says, adding,  “We understand that small- or medium-sized businesses often don’t have the time or the resources to invest in skills development or follow-up and so we are there to partner with the employer to provide this support without getting in the way or interfering with the employer-employee relationship.
Under its environmental banner, Recypro provides a valuable alternative to filling up municipal landfills with e-waste. Although it is not equipped to conduct curbside pickup of domestic e-waste, Siméon said her organization has agreements with several municipalities including St-Jerome and Sherbrooke to receive the electronic waste collected at their eco-centres.
If people are willing to deliver, Recypro accepts all kinds of computer hardware, electronic equipment (except television sets), office equipment (except photocopiers), telephones and network equipment, functional or not. For the most part this is a free service except for cathode ray tube monitors for which there is a $10 recycling fee.
For industrial donations, they will provide free pickup when there are at least 25 to 30 pieces of equipment (not including keyboards or mice).
From its 15,000 square-foot building at 70 Rue Simon in Lachute, Recypro also offers a wide variety of related services. Besides the new and used computers and accessories including monitors, printers and networking gear, staff can troubleshoot technical problems, perform permanent data destruction and provide general system maintenance at competitive prices.
For more information call 450-562-7740 or go to www.recypro.com. The facility’s business hours are Monday to Thursday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to and 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Fridays.

In Recycpro’s 15,000-square-foot warehouse in Lachute, electronic waste is refurbished or repaired and is put back to use whenever possible. photo Tara Kirkpatrick

Recycpro’s supervisor, Francois Poulin is seen here working on a piece of equipment. While the facility refurbishes electronic equipment, it is also helping people face employment barriers to get back on their feet. photo Tara Kirkpatrick


Recypro director Véronique Simon says employees being reintegrated into the work force receive a lot of support which extends beyond their employment at Recypro. photo Tara Kirkpatrick