Below is the transcript of the interview I conducted for the radio with Prince Edward County councillor, Ray Best, the morning of the municipality’s second electronic waste collection event on Sunday, February 7, 2010.

JL What’s your affiliation with this event today?

RB I’m a councillor for North Marysburgh and I sit on the board for Quinte Waste Solutions.

JL Where’d the idea come from?

RB We ran a Quinte Waste Solutions “tv day” as a push to get tvs out of landfill sites last November and it was a great success; so I could see we’d have some more after Christmas – after everyone got their new tvs – so, (with help), we’re here today.

JL What’s so important about keeping e-waste out of landfill sites?

RB Electronics are full of contaminants. A lot of tvs and computers contain heavy metals. If you throw them in a landfill site they’ll sit there and eventually end up in our water stream. So as a result, we try to keep them out of landfills and dispose of them through other means.

JL How do we know what we can bring today?

RB Today’s unique in that we’re working with Waste Management this time. They’ve agreed to take computers, lap tops, printers, screens and any of those things, plus tvs.

JL And this is the second time you’ve tried this in Prince Edward County?

RB Yes. The first time was in November and we knew the demand was going to be great, so we did not take computers  et cetera. This time we agreed to take them. I think it’s going to work out really well.

JL So if you’re working with this management company, there’s obviously a cost to rate payers. Why is this a good use of taxpayers’ money?

RB It comes out at zero cost. Stewardship Ontario stepped up to the plate months ago and started paying for e-waste disposal. So they give us, the generater, which we are, they pay us so much (money) a pound. So it kind of off-sets itself. This time we’re having a couple of minor hockey teams help out and they will get some fundraising out of this.

JL Great, so it sounds like it’s benefiting the community in a lot of different ways?

RB Yes.

JL Anything else you’d like to add?

RB Just that today’s the day to get rid of all your e-waste so bring it in. We’re waiting for you!