The other day I took a return trip to Canada Computers. The new LG monitor I bought for my wife’s birthday was defective and I wanted to exchange it for a similar Samsung model. Unfortunately, I was met with two unpleasant surprises when I arrived at the shop. The first thing was that the problem with the display wouldn’t reproduce for the guys in the shop, resulting in a small restocking fee. The second surprise was that in 24 hours I’d had the monitor, Ontario instated a new fee for purchasing electronics, which almost doubled the damage on the restocking fee in this case.

To be clear, when I found out the reason this new fee is being put into place, I was pleased. The fee is a part of the new Ontario Electronic Stewardship which aims at making the disposal of electronics more environmentally friendly. Of course, more careful disposal is more expensive, but I am happy to pay for such a noble environmental effort. As a tech guy who frequents computer shops, I’m sure I’ll be paying this fee more often than many; I hope some of it gets reinvested in awareness of the program so that more people paying for proper electronic waste disposal actually use it.

//Mark