Tech Support Memes

You guys should be better at that.

Here in Norway any store that sells electronic products are required by law to also take in e-waste from any private person (and any private company that is a customer of that store) and handle that e-waste correctly.

All municipals are also required to make sure there are enough free e-waste return points for their citizens.

In Montreal it's pretty terrible. It's a fragmented set of hodge-podge solutions. Batteries? Take them to the thrift store. Phone? Drop it off in a metal box next to a grocery store, but not separate batteries there! Bigger items? Go to an "eco-center", only to find out they are not easily accessible by public transit and even if you find one close to a bus stop, it's still a walk up an access street with no sidewalk where you notice the center is more for contractors to drive up in F350s and dump drywall, and when you show up on foot with a backpack full of crap they ignore you or look at you with a dull, bovine expression of "that wasn't in the training video".

In Australia we just take it to an electronics retailer since 2011 - as they are now legally required to accept it and send it on to a certified e-waste disposal partner, provided they import over a certain threshold (avoids overburdening small businesses). For example if the store sells computers they have to accept computer e-waste, so you can drop it with them - even if you didn't buy it there. It is all free.

https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/product-stewardship/television-computer-recycling-scheme

Same here, we used to be able to at Best Buy, but they closed that in our town so now the only option I'm aware of is the church downtown doing an e-waste recycling day once every quarter or so.

I saved a perfectly good Trinitron from being recycled there one year.

Our area in BC has free drop off all week, at the same place as bottle, can, battery, oil, etc collection.

Sometimes computer dudes hangout waiting to reclaim PC and laptop parts