Ontario Electronic Stewardship congratulates Staples Canada for expanding its
collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) to 85 stores
across Ontario

TORONTO , Nov. 4 /CNW/ - Ontario Electronic Stewardship congratulates Staples Canada on becoming a leader among retail outlets to accept unwanted electronics and tvs for reuse and recycling. By December this year, Staples Canada will have 85 stores collecting and diverting more waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) from landfills.

"We are very pleased with this new development of our provincial program," said Carol Hochu, Executive Director of Ontario Electronic Stewardship (OES). "Staples has been a strong supporter of this program right from the beginning when we launched in April." OES manages the WEEE program for Ontario. Under the first phase of the program, WEEE includes desktop and portable computers, printers, keyboard, mice, optical drives and televisions.

"We are proud of our participation in the WEEE program and are ecstatic to announce that we are expanding our program to 85 locations. This increase makes it easier for many more Canadians to divert unwanted electronics from landfills." said Leigh Pearson , Manager, Facility and Environmental Services.

All of our partners are seeing good results from their participation in the program and it is up to the consumer to make sure we expand even further across the provinces. If you have any unwanted electronics sitting in your basement or garage, check the website and see if it can be reused or recycled. On www.dowhatyoucan.ca you enter your postal code and the Staples collection location nearest you will be found and the list of items they take as well.

The first six months of the program saw the collection of 7,100 tonnes of material. With the enthusiastic support of the staff at the 85 Staples locations and the other hundreds of collection sites and events across Ontario, we are looking to grow that number quite substantially over the course of the program.

OES is a not-for-profit organization formed by leading retail, information technology and consumer electronic companies to implement the WEEE Program Plan under the Waste Diversion Act, and is responsible for developing and implementing the WEEE Program Plan, in co-operation with Waste Diversion Ontario. The plan requires brand owners, first importers and assemblers to pay fees on designated electrical and electronic equipment supplied into the Ontario market. These fees pay for collection, transportation, reuse and recycling of the collected WEEE as well as research and development, consumer education and program administration.

Learn More www.ontarioelectronicstewardship.ca and www.dowhatyoucan.ca

For further information: Susan Logan, Communications, [phone], [email protected]