With the beginning of the school year comes the opportunity for Montgomery School students to continue with their eWaste recycling program, stripping down electronics and using the non-recyclables to create new things. Vice Principal David Crowell says the program has been going on for a few years now, which began as part of the Grade 6 and 7 curriculum, but has now extended to include the younger students.

Any time they have a break, like in the winter when it’s too cold to go outside for recess, the kids are able to pick up some tools and strip the electronics, including things like laptops, VCRs and cell phones.  Crowell says, “You’ll go wandering by those classrooms, and there will be half the classroom hunched on the floor over top of whatever they are taking apart – a VCR or a computer. It keeps them busy and they are actually really effective at stripping these things down.”
He hopes it will give them some confidence in using tools later in life, and they may possibly think about trying to fix something rather than throwing it out and buying new.

The students strip them down and the metals go to a local recycler, but they also make things like keychains out of circuit boards.  Crowell notes that about 50 per cent of the material in electronics can be recycled. The older students are taught about the social impact of waste management and how the resources from old electronics can be used again, along with learning about where the metals come from.