Sault Ste. Marie’s Reina Recycling combats toxic e-waste

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Recycling has changed a great deal over the years. There was a time when recycling simply meant carrying something out to the burn barrel and setting it on fire.

As recycling evolved, paper, plastic, glass, and cardboard began to be popular items for recycling, and the world began to see products made solely from recycled materials.

Today, recycling is still alive and kicking, but there are items in this era that never had to be dealt with before.

Where does one take a lithium battery to get recycled? How about an old computer monitor or the computer itself? Cellphones, tablets, TVs, and laptops are all items that don’t fall into the traditional recycling categories, so where can one take these items to be rid of them and be environmentally conscious?

Sault Ste. Marie happens to have just such a place in Reina Recycling.

Owned and operated by Sherry Kruch, Reina Recycling handles all the items mentioned above. With the help of her husband Chuck and mascot Rowan, Reina’s takes in all sorts of e-waste and disposes of it in a way that is environmentally safe.

Kruch began her mission in December of 2022 and opened the current warehouse in March of 2023.

“There is just so much electronic waste nowadays that has to be dealt with,” Kruch said when asked why she and Chuck have taken this on. “I can’t remember what the exact percentage of all waste is electronic in nature, but I do know that 70 per cent of the toxins in that total waste number come from e-waste.”

One statistic that stood out in talking to the Kruchs was in regards to cell phones.

“Let’s say someone wanted to just get rid of an old cell phone and didn’t want anyone to get any data from it, so they throw it in a pond or lake,” Sherry said. “That one cell phone will contaminate 60-70 thousand gallons of water.”

The Kruch’s are still fine-tuning their operation, and their next step is to obtain a Michigan registration, which would allow them to dismantle some electronic devices and harvest the valuable parts to sell and actually make money instead of having to pay other recyclers to take things away.

“We just shipped out seven tons worth of TVs,” Chuck said. “If we could dismantle them here instead of having to ship them to Wisconsin, it would be a real money-maker for us.”

Reina’s is a non-profit, but even so, it needs to be able to cover the costs to ship out electronics to larger facilities. Being able to pay the two technicians that the facility employs is also a necessary expense.

“There are months where we’re scrambling to pay the bills,” Sherry said. “But we’re hoping that it will be self-sustaining in the future as we grow.”

Another potential revenue stream comes from some refurbished items that Reina’s has for sale. There are iPads, Kindles, laptops, and some small appliances that are currently for sale at the facility. The prices are low on these items, but they are all functional and ready to go.

Despite still being essentially in its infancy stage, Reina’s is making a difference. From August 10th  to September 10th  of this year, Reina’s has recycled 929 pounds of desktop computers, 430 pounds of laptops, 1,662 pounds of printers, 1,911 pounds of flat screen TVs and monitors, and 3,411 pounds of miscellaneous items for a total of 9,679 pounds worth of recycled items -just over 5.5 tons.

The collection center is located at 401 Fort Street in Sault Ste. Marie, where they have hours from 2-5 pm every Saturday. 

 Courtesy: www.sooleader.com