The Bulkley-Nechako Regional District as an area is seeing significant increases to the recycling of consumer electronics.
So reported Encorp President and CEO Neil Hastie, who stopped in Smithers during a visit to the area where he gave directors of the regional district an update on recycling.
“What I wanted to be able to do is bring the regional district directors up to date with what’s going on within the Bulkley-Nechako Regional District in terms of recycling,” he said.
What he had to say to the directors was good news.
“[The] volume of recycling is good,” he said. “Electronics is a fairly new recycling program in the province ... volume continues to grow.”
Over 2010, there has been a 40 per cent increase in electronic recycling in the area. He reported that has worked out to 97,000 kg, or 1.3 kg per person.
It’s a great increase considering only two places in the regional district take electronics; Fraser Lake and Smither’s bottle depot.
Beverage container recycling, the real core of Encorp’s program, saw a slight dip of five per cent but Hastie pointed out that being a much older program the numbers tend to stabilize and don’t have the significant swings of newer programs.
The actual volume of beverage containers has been 640,000 kg in the regional district, or 254 containers per person.
More recycling programs will be introduced over the coming months.
On Oct. 1, small appliances will be accepted as well at the Smithers depot.
“On October 1 you’ll be able to take back things like microwaves and kettles and floor care appliances. This list of things that consumers can take back ... is growing.”
There are significant advantages to recycling things like your appliances and electronics beyond simply recycling them for their metals and materials.
He said a cracked computer monitor will leak lead into the ground, contaminating soil and groundwater.
“There’s a lot of good reasons to keep all that material being responsibly recycled.”
He said Encorp has a goal to have more of their bottle depots able to take back electronics in the area.
He said that the regional district here is very progressive when it comes to recycling and they work hard to grow citizens’ ability to recycle.
“We’ll work in partnership with them to help make that happen.”