Confession

As I took out the garbage last night, I saw that my neighbour had a computer monitor, some wires, and a 90's style dot-matrix printer waiting to be thrown out.

Unfortunately, these things will be thrown out in the garbage and not recycled. So, I was going to do a good thing. I found a business in Brampton that recycles old electronics. Great! I can just drop it off and they'll take care of it. The name of the business is "Sims Recycling Systems" and their motto is: "Save Our Planet". Then noticed that there was a "quote generator". Yup, you had to pay to have it recycled. So, I got a quote for how much it would cost to recycle this monitor and it was over $150. I later learned that this was more for corporate recycling hence the cost. Even then though, how is a company or corporation expected to recycle their "old" computers if they have to pay for it? Obviously, I don't see this happening.

With a little more searching, I found that the City of Toronto has many locations for residential electronics recycling and it is free of charge. There was one right on my way to work, so I was going to put that printer and monitor in my car before the trucks came and drop it off myself.

Well, I was running late, and it was pouring rain. The equipment was soaked, and I was in a hurry. That right there was enough to deter me from taking the step to put it in my car. So, I didn't get to do my good deed for the day.

What I deem to be the real problem though is that there isn't enough awareness or publicity about these recycling centers. There should be commercials, infomercials, and incentives to use these facilities. My neighbour is an intelligent guy with a really cute dog and he commented on my green party sign that I had on my lawn before the election. But, it takes that extra step to actually recycle. It shouldn't be this difficult!!!!!