Saskatoon classroom gets creative to reduce electronic waste

With screwdrivers and pliers in hand, Grade 6 and 7 students at Montgomery School in Saskatoon carefully dismantle laptops, race cars, cellphones and printers.

The electronics are either past their useful life or no longer work. But the students are making use of what's inside of them.

It's part of a class project to cut down on the amount of electronic waste — or e-waste — that ends up in the landfill.

"The idea is ... how do we look at old items that would have probably been considered worthless and find the value in them, and look at ways of bringing that value out," said teacher David Crowell.

Classes at the school began working with the non-profit Saskatchewan Environmental Society on a project two years ago. Students were asked to go through the school's trash bins and sort items to see what could be reused or composted.

The Grade 6/7 curriculum includes looking at the social impact of electricity and waste management, and with donated electronics gathering dust at the school, Crowell thought his class could learn how to reuse e-waste.

So far, the class has had success in creating keychains out of circuit boards. They were recently sold at a school event, with funds going toward future class projects.

Most of the e-waste is metal, which Crowell takes to a local recycler.

In 2019, a record 53.6 million million tonnes of e-waste was dumped worldwide, according to a report from the United Nations.

UN data also shows Canada generated 20.2 kilograms of e-waste per capita that year. But in 2016, Canada only formally collected 2.8 kilograms per capita.

"Every family generates a lot of electronic waste and we don't really realize it," Crowell said.

His school's project teaches students an important lesson, but it's not all serious business.

"I think the most fun part about doing this is probably ripping apart everything," said Grade 6 student Bailey George.

It's not just Crowell's students who understand the value of e-waste.