By Katherine MacDonald
ocal computer businesses credit a city program for helping them give back to the community, protect the environment, and increase their own publicity.
The “Take it Back!” program, run by the City of Ottawa, has been involved in recycling computers for just over a year.
The city lists two Centretown computer businesses where people can bring their old and broken computers to be recycled.
Terry Cheng, president of Sprint Computer on Somerset Street, is part of the program. He says it’s labour intensive to go through a used computer to see if the components are working.
“We don’t really make a profit off of them,” he says, “but it . . . helps people out.”
Cheng says an example where the program helped the community is when his company donated a recycled computer to the organizers of a local festival.
“They had a computer that wasn’t working and they came to us and we spent some time fixing up a 486 for them to use,” he says.
Joe Hall, a project co-ordinator with the city, says the companies on the list do not usually expect to make a profit from the used computers.
He says they want to take responsibility for the product they sell by recycling it. In doing so they help the environment while giving something back to the community.
Perry Spano, of Right Stop Computer Shop on Slater Street, agrees.
He says recycling the computers “sure beats throwing them out.” Although his business focuses mainly on selling new computer equipment, he does take back used computers through the city’s program.
The computers they receive are dismantled and only the useful parts are kept. They donate the rest to whoever wants it.
Mark Bradley, of the Trail Road Waste Facility, says “we’ve had a lot less computer materials (brought to the landfill) since the beginning of the program.”
Computers don’t pose a greater risk to the environment than regular garbage, he says. But he adds that recycling is encouraged because the components in the computers can be used for other purposes.
“Basically, they can just shred the components of the computers and sell them,” he explains.
John Bennett, of the Sierra Club, agrees that anything that can be recycled, should be recycled.
“There’s nothing inherently environmentally dangerous about computers, he says. “But it’s more environmentally benign to extract gold and other precious metals from computers than from the earth.”
He says the cost of recycling should be included in the price of computers. He also says more computer companies should be taking environmental responsibility for the equipment they sell.
Another benefit of the “Take it Back!” program is that it attracts customers.
Trevor Hill, vice-president of Komputer Korner, says his business has gotten a lot of publicity because of its involvement in the program.
“We’ve had people from Kanata come in here to return computers and say, ‘Wow! We didn’t even know you were here.’ ”
Cheng, from Sprint Computer agrees.
“It’s good for publicity,” he says.
Bo Brodie’s Nepean business, Computer Recyclers, takes used computers and assesses them to see if they are resellable.
If they aren’t, he sells them as scrap metal.
He says he relies mainly on high-tech companies to fuel his recycling business.
“Less than one per cent of my computers come from the program,” he explains. “If people are relying only on ‘Take it Back!’ (to profit from selling used computer parts) it probably won’t make a lot of money for them.
But most important thing about the “Take it Back!” is not publicity or profit. “It’s about corporate stewardship,” says Hall.
The retailers take the responsibility for taking back the product they sell,” he adds. “Everyone should have that sense of duty.”