And the winner for the Cochrane E-Waste challenge is … Cochrane High.
The competition ran from Sept. 21 to Oct. 23 with over 9,200 kilograms of e-waste sent for recycling from six local participating schools.
The 2015 E-Waste recycling challenge was initiated and sponsored by the town’s Eco Centre in partnership with Global Electric Electronics Processing (GEEP), the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee (CEAC) and Bird’s Eye Technologies.
Manachaban Middle school, Cochrane High school, Cochrane Christian Academy, École Notre-Dame Des Vallees and the Holy Spirit Catholic School competed for the prize.
Cochrane High won $1,000 to go towards sustainability initiatives for the school for collecting and sending in 4,792 kg of e-waste, an average of 6 kg of e-waste per student. The other top schools were Holy Spirit at 5.29kg per student and Manachaban at 4.89kg per student.
The e-waste collected included unwanted electronics, such as televisions, computers and cell phones.
When electronics are disposed of improperly there is a chance of hazardous materials such as lead, mercury and cadmium leaking into the ground and posing a threat to the environment.
According to the town website, none of the discarded electronics processed in Alberta’s electronics recycling program are sent to, or “dumped” into developing countries.
E-waste can still be dropped off year-round at the Eco Centre located at 50 Griffin Industrial Point, open Wednesday-Saturday from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information go to cochrane.ca/250/Eco-Centre
