OT: Ontario Environmental Handling Fees

[Ushnish Sengupta]

Hi

I can provide a bit more insight into OES, as Free Geek Toronto is an
authorized collector and refurbisher.

A key point before I dive into the the details is that we refurbish a lot of
incoming Windows desktops into Linux Ubuntu desktops, so be prepared for the
flood of Linux newbies that will make it onto TLUG!
Any offers of help to enable newbies make the most of their Linux experience
would be much appreciated!

Re OES

So Free Geek Toronto aka Cyberequality is an authorized collector and
refurbisher for OES (Ontario Electronic Stewardship).
http://www.ontarioelectronicstewardship.ca/reusers/reusers.html
The fee that consumers and producers pay when purchasing a new item goes
into a pool from which we get a small portion to collect and refurbish items
that people discard after use.  So for example we get ~$200 per metric
tonne, that's cents per desktop, more for monitors since they are heavier.
The fees also goes to processors for processing the items into reusable
materials.  Free Geek Toronto is not a processor.

We also get a small fee ( a couple of dollars) for every item we refurbish
and put into reuse. We definitely follow a Reuse first , Reduce second and
Recycle policy where we reduce and reuse before recycling. The fourth "R" we
add to the mix is Reintegration i.e. Reintegration of individuals who are
getting left behind in the digital divide not only to become Linux users,
but hopefully eventually contributors to the broader Linux community.

So if anyone wants to help us collect additional windows desktops to
refurbish them and repurpose them as Linux Ubuntu desktops, feel free to
contact me:

Ushnish Sengupta
ushnish.sengupta-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
(647) 210 2524

On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 12:49 PM, Michael Lauzon <mlauzon-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 12:07, Kevin Cozens <kevin-4dS5u2o1hCn3fQ9qLvQP4Q at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > Ivan Avery Frey wrote:
> >>
> >> In case anybody's interested here is the table:
> >> http://www.ontarioelectronicstewardship.ca/stewards/fees.html
> >
> > This message thread got me thinking of some questions about the program.
> >
> > How is the average user expected to know if they should be charged an
> > environmental handling fee for an item? How are they supposed to know if
> the
> > fee being charged is the "correct" amount? How can we know if the
> companies
> > collecting these fees are passing on the amounts collected?
> > --
>
>
> When I worked at Wal-Mart in Calgary, we had some info sheets, etc.
> showing what fee you were paying depending on the item and what size
> the item was -- the latter was more for TVs -- of course Ontario more
> or less got the idea of this fee from Alberta.
>
>
> --
> Sincerely,
>
> Michael Lauzon
>  --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
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