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Llynwen Osborne, Waste Coordinator, Sustainability Office, with some of the electronic waste that is slated to be recycled. The Sustainability Office hopes to collect a lot more e-waste from staff, faculty and students during the Recycle IT Games on March 5.

Electronic waste (e-waste) recycling at Queen’s gets an interesting twist next week.

The Campus Computer Store (CCS), ITServices and the Sustainability Office have teamed up to host the inaugural Recycle IT Games on March 5, one of several activities happening during Queen’s Greenfest March 4-8.

“We thought it’s time to remind people on campus about the e-waste recycling program because it’s been going on for several years,” says Brian Coughtrey, Coordinator, CCS. “We wanted to do something where people could have fun while helping the environment.”

The Recycle IT Games will be held in the parking lot at the corner of Union and Division streets. Greenfest prize ballots will be awarded to anyone who brings in e-waste from home or work. Items that will be accepted include desktops, laptops, mice, monitors, hard drives, scanners, fax machines, TVs, DVD players, VCRs, gaming devices, cameras, keyboards and cell phones.

Additional ballots are available for people who participate in the events, which include:
• The laptop toss. Contestants must stand at a designated line and throw their unwanted device into the recycling bin.
• The mobile phone accuracy toss. Participants must throw their devices into recycling totes situated at different distances. They receive more ballots the farther away the tote.

Queen’s diverts approximately 30 tonnes of e-waste annually from landfills, ensuring harmful chemicals and metals from those items don’t leach into the environment and groundwater.

“We were excited when Brian approached us to promote e-waste recycling, one of the many waste diversion programs in place at the university,” says Llynwen Osborne, Waste Coordinator, Sustainability Office. “Events and competitions like the Recycle IT Games and help to raise awareness about waste diversion options available on campus.”

Queen’ community members who can’t attend the Recycle IT Games can drop off their e-waste all next week at the Campus Computer Store and receive a prize ballot. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be held at the Dupuis Hall loading dock behind CCS.

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