A Winnipeg non-profit is reminding us to properly recycle our electronics, and with Earth Day right around the corner, it\u2019s important to remember that recycling is a year-round responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarth Day is great. If you recycle around Earth Day and Earth Week, that\u2019s fantastic. But this is a reminder of what you should do 12 months of the year. We\u2019re not just open around Earth Day or in the summertime. We operate 12 months of the year,\u201c said Dennis Neufeld, executive director, Electronic Products Recycling Association (EPRA) of Manitoba.<\/p>\n
EPAR here in Manitoba is tasked with making sure there is a convenient location for people to drop off their electronics when they are either done with them or the devices don\u2019t work anymore.<\/p>\n
But Neufeld tells CityNews that the association does more than people think.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo people think of us as the TV, computer guys, but we\u2019re much more than that. Probably one of the largest items we take back are microwave ovens. There\u2019s a lot of steel and aluminium inside there. So once we\u2019re finished breaking it down. We put those commodities right back into the market to build new items from the old items we\u2019re collecting,\u201d Neufeld explained.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s important to remember, not everything can be recycled, specifically ozone-depleting substances like air conditioners, dehumidifiers, and water coolers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they end up in our recycling, we have to make sure we decommission them properly. We just can\u2019t throw them in the garbage because we don\u2019t accept them. So we do decommission them, but they are a problem for us,\u201d said Neufeld.<\/p>\n
Failure to properly recycle your electronics is not only harmful to the environment but also to your own health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s mercury in some of these items. There\u2019s items that cause respiratory issues to people. So they\u2019re safe in our homes. They\u2019re safe when we use. But if they are not responsibly recycled, they are a hazard to people and the environment,\u201d Neufeld explained.<\/p>\n
The EPRA has 115 drop-off locations across the province, and encourages Manitobans to check EPRA\u2019s website before making a drop-off to see what they can and can\u2019t recycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Winnipeg non-profit is reminding us to properly recycle our electronics, and with Earth Day right around the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-615133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}