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Reuse or Recycle?

Reuse or recycle ?

Ask yourself that question when you have one or more electronic products that you want to get rid of.

Whatever you decide, it’s important to erase your personal data from your devices before handing them over to anyone else. To learn more, see How to Prepare your Device.

Reuse

EPRA-Québec encourages the population to prioritize the reuse of electronics that have not yet reached the end of their useful life. So, if your electronic items are still in good working order, below are a few reuse options:

  • Donate them to family members, friends or local charities who could find another use for them.

  • Give away devices without built-in memory by bringing them to an authorized drop-off point that is permitted* to put them back on the second-hand market to give them a second life.

    • Examples of devices accepted for this purpose: TVs, monitors, radios, stereos, audio-video systems.

    • Examples of devices refused for this purpose: laptop or desktop computers, tablets, printers or multifunction printers, cell phones, digital players, video game consoles, digital cameras

* These authorized drop-off points, such as Renaissance stores and several other donation centres, are permitted by EPRA-Québec to put certain electronic devices that they receive on the second-hand market, provided that these products do not contain built-in memory. These authorized drop-off points cannot dismantle or repair devices they receive. No financial compensation and no official donation receipt will be given.  

You can find these authorized drop-off points on the Where Can I Recycle page by checking the “See only those that also accept donations of certain devices” box.

  • Bring them to any other EPRA-Québec authorized drop-off point. The devices will then be transported to recyclers approved by the program who will evaluate their reuse potential and process them accordingly.   

  • Give them to a reuse organization that accepts electronics from individuals. However, we recommend that you research these organizations before donating your products since there are also issues to consider.

    Take the time to evaluate the reuse organization to make sure that it has all necessary measures in place to protect both human health and the environment as well as your own privacy. For instance:

    • Your equipment will not be landfilled or illegally shipped overseas.

    • The reuse organization has a policy in place for ensuring the security of user’s information, such as what is contained on disk drives.

    • The reuse organization uses a recycler approved in your province to process any unusable parts or equipment.

9 Questions to ask a reuse organization

  1. Where do products intended for reuse or refurbishment go?

  2. How do you handle scrap materials?

  3. Do you ship any products, parts, or scrap materials overseas?

  4. Can you guarantee that these products will not end up in a landfill?

  5. How do you manage hazardous waste such as spent batteries and mercury bulbs?

  6. What health and safety precautions do you have in place for your employees that handle potentially hazardous materials that electronics contain?

  7. Do you have environmental liability insurance?

  8. Do you have worker’s compensation coverage?

  9. What measures do you have in place to protect my personal information contained on my computer hard drive?

Recycling

Responsibly recycling your end-of-life electronics means recovering and reclaiming materials such as glass, plastic, and metals like gold, silver and copper.

And it has never been easier to do. Thanks to its network of over 3,100 drop-off locations throughout the country, the EPRA/Recycle My Electronics program has made recycling electronics even easier and more convenient than ever.

In Québec, residents can recycle their unusable old electronics FREE OF CHARGE by bringing them to any of the 1,000 or so authorized drop-off points in the province. 

Your action contributes to:

  • Diverting e-waste from landfills.

  • Preventing e-waste from being illegally exported or handled by irresponsible recyclers.

  • Conserving natural resources by recovering and reclaiming those that can be put back into the manufacturing supply chain to make all sorts of new products.  

All products brought to our authorized drop-off points will be transported directly to organizations in Québec that are compliant with current electronic recycling standards in Canada and approved by the Recycler Qualification Office (RQO). These organizations will then ensure the safe and secure processing of all products they receive.

Once the products are dismantled: 

  • Parts that contain substances of concern, such as mercury and lead, are removed for proper downstream processing to protect the environment as well as the health and safety of the workers handling them. 

  • Data storage devices or the data they contain are destroyed in a safe and secure way.

  • Other component materials are processed mechanically through crushing, shredding and magnetic separation to sort and recover recyclable materials, such as glass, plastic, and metals.