Students at Sands Secondary are holding a pair of electronic waste collection events in the coming weeks in hopes of providing refurbished items for charities and, if all goes well, winning a $10,000 prize for their school.
The drop-off events, organized by the Sands student council and scheduled for June 19-20 and July 10-17, are the school’s entry into this year’s Electronic Recycling Association (ERA) Scholarship contest. Teams across Canada will be holding e-waste collection events until July 31 in the hopes of winning the top prize of $10,000, a MacBook Pro for their school and three laptops for a local charity.
“We thought it was a good way to support activities and other initiatives in our school,” organizer Parneet Gill told the Reporter.
The ERA will chose the top 10 teams based on the quantity and quality of the items they collected and the exposure the event received through online and offline marketing platforms, and each winning team will receive a MacBook Pro for their school and three laptops for a local charity. As well, the top five teams will each be awarded cash prizes ($10,000 for first, $5,000 for second, $3,000 for third, and $1,000 for both fourth and fifth).
But regardless of whether they take home a prize, the team at Sands sees the initiative as an opportunity to give back to their community by helping those in need.
“We take the items, sanitize them and package them so they can be taken to the [ERA] collection site. From there, [the items will be] basically refurbished or recycled properly, and the newer products that are made from the old ones are then donated to charity or people less fortunate,” organizer Sumreet Bains said.
Both drop-off events will be held at Sands Secondary (10840 82nd Avenue). The first will be held June 19 and 20, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The second will take place the week of July 10-17 (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 10, 11 and 17, and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 12-16).
Accepted items include cell phones, tablets, laptops, computers, servers, monitors, networking equipment, gaming consoles and similar electronics. Household or personal electronics will not be collected.
editor@northdeltareporter.com
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