Revolutionizing IT waste recycling
What happens to components from smart devices, cables, batteries and fluorescent lights when the Government of Canada needs to dispose of them? How do we keep this electronic waste—or e-waste—out of Canada’s landfills?
As the department that delivers digital services to Government of Canada organizations, SSC can’t—and won’t—ignore e-waste. That is why SSC has made managing e-waste a part of its Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy 2023-2027. One of the ways in which SSC is supporting this goal is by making it a priority to fund Canadian start-ups and their innovative prototypes to address e-waste.
Innovative solutions
Through the Innovative Solutions Canada program, SSC has been funding Canadian start-ups to develop breakthrough prototypes that would revolutionize how we deal with e-waste.
One challenge in e-waste management is dealing with non-recyclable plastics. GreeNovel has developed a microwave-based prototype that selectively heats and breaks down non-recyclable plastics, enabling them to be extracted more efficiently. This approach not only helps tackle the issue of non-recyclable plastics, but also leads to more energy-efficient plastics recycling.
Valuable metals such as copper, nickel, titanium and gold can also be extracted from e-waste and returned to the supply chain. The GreeNovel prototype removes more than 65 different metals and extracts those substances for reuse.
Another company, Excir, used its funding to develop a prototype that can extract gold from e-waste like printed circuit boards, which are found in laptops and mobile phones. Extracting and reusing these metals can help decrease demand for mining and ultimately reduce further emissions.
Non-recyclable cling film is commonly used to wrap pallets of IT equipment. Start-up AxiPolymer has developed a cling film alternative that is recyclable and could be used to produce high-quality materials at the end of its life cycle. Since the start-up’s product is compatible with the existing polyethylene recycling process, it has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of comparable solutions by up to 35%. Though not able to recycle e-waste directly, the product could reduce waste related to IT assets by replacing single-use materials currently in use. SSC is working with the start-up to test the prototype with Merlin Plastics, a Canadian plastics recycling company.
What’s next
Efficiently managing end-of-life electronic items, or e-waste, is a challenge, but SSC is exploring promising solutions.
Want to learn more about other innovative projects at SSC? Read our innovation story series on Canada.ca: Our stories - Canada.ca
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