How these Coquitlam residents collected thousands of pounds of e-waste
Their last event of the summer is at Sentinel Storage on Barnett Highway, this Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.
In the past few years, Jazmine Cabaluna has seen multiple eras of technology — including heavy, box-shaped, off-white Macintosh computers from the ‘80s, long-broken gaming consoles and Rubbermaid tubs of CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes.
For years, she’s been collecting electronic waste, or e-waste, to take to an Electronic Recycling Association (ERA) depot in Richmond, where it’s either refurbished or recycled and donated to non-profits and charities in Metro Vancouver.
“It’s satisfying to see the history in what people donate,” the 19-year-old University of British Columbia student told the Dispatch in an interview.
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Cabaluna started collecting e-waste as a Grade 11 student at Gleneagle Secondary School. She had been scrolling through a website with a list of Canadian scholarships, and one from the ERA stuck out.
Instead of a typical scholarship application that’s scored on an essay or GPA, students collect used electronics from the general public. The student who collects the most wins, with the first place prize $10,000.
Cabaluna ran the project solo the first year, picking up electronics at various schools with the help of her parents. But it was challenging to coordinate schedules with each school, and there wasn’t much space for people to drop off bigger items like televisions.
In her Grade 12 year, her friend Callum Rettie joined her on the project, and they streamlined their system, focusing on collecting e-waste donations in open community spaces, like malls or farmers markets. Since then, they have come first place in the ERA competition each year, splitting the prize money equally to help pay for their studies at UBC.
“It got really popular,” Cabaluna said.
Cabaluna believes this is because it is useful for residents to have access to an e-waste donation booth in a common place like a mall. People have told her that they bring items that have sat unused in their house or garage for a while. But if they’re already planning to visit the mall or farmers market where she and Rettie have a booth set up, it’s easy for them to bring that item and donate it.
In the entire span of their project, Cabaluna and Rettie have collected between 10,000 and 15,000 pounds of e-waste — with 5,000 and 7,000 pounds of that collected last year alone.
This summer, they’ve been having a collection event every two weeks. Their last event of the summer is this Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at Sentinel Storage on Barnet Highway. People can bring anything IT related, but they don’t accept household, kitchen or personal appliances like an electric fan, blender or hair dryer.
