RLG Americas provides a one stop solution for producers with compliance, returns, and recycling obligations across all Canadian provinces and EPR product categories.
Individual Take-Back Solutions
We design innovative solutions for industrial and hard-to-recycle products.
Returns Management
The e-commerce market is booming and the need for sustainable solutions, leading to new highs in customer returns year after year. This makes returns increasingly important for customer satisfaction and reverse logistics. Our subsidiary Cycleon is the specialist in the market for innovative returns management providing seamless return experiences and reducing the environmental impact as well as the cost of returns.
Environmental Compliance
RLG provides solutions for producers of consumer goods once products have reached end of life. These solutions can be for the purpose of meeting regulatory requirements or for manufacturers that want to provide their consumers with an environmentally responsible return program. Our services are designed to be tailored to what each individual producer needs.
RLG operates compliance schemes and producer responsibility organizations (PROs) for electronics (WEEE or E-waste), and packaging.
We help producers, importers, and retailers fulfill their producer responsibility obligations with PROs designed to meet relevant province-specific requirements. Our expertise in this field extends to Europe, the Americas, and Asia. PRO services include support for registration and supply reporting, collecting and recycling relevant materials, organizing the data processes required for full transparency and compliance, and constantly monitoring the PRO’s legal status.
RLG establishes efficient take-back PROs by coordinating with accredited and fully audited recyclers, providing safe containers, drawing up necessary documentation, and reporting via our IT management system. We organize both the physical process of fulfilling compliance schemes and the data-driven insights that must be submitted to appropriate authorities in a timely manner.
Our take-back solutions include the relevant stakeholders (the producers, local authorities, end-users, and collection points) as we process materials. We work with our clients to organize safe transport and disposal processes that meet their legal requirements.
The PRO
RLG offers a full-service registered PRO for Ontario electronics producers required to meet the regulatory and recycling obligations presented under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act.
Unlike the former WEEE EPR (extended producer responsibility) program managed by Ontario Electronic Stewardship, the new Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) regulation requires an IPR (individual producer responsibility) focused program model. IPR dictates full producer responsibility and financial accountability for environmentally responsible collection and recycling of WEEE supplied into Ontario.
RLG has more than a decade of experience and expertise managing regulatory and volunteer producer take back programs for major electronics manufacturers across Canada, the United States, and Latin America. Our goal is to ensure continued compliance and cost-competitive solutions for all affected WEEE producers, no matter how large or small.
What we offer
We can assist obligated producers navigate the regulatory requirements of the law through:
For general information about the Act, please see the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority’s website.
Covered ITT/AV Equipment
Information technology, telecommunications, and audio-visual equipment (ITT/AV) include*:
Computers
Printers (desktop & floor-standing), including printer cartridges
Video game devices
Telephones, including cellular phones
Display devices
Radios & stereos
Headphones & speakers
Cameras, including security cameras
Video recorders
Drones with audio-visual recording equipment
Musical instruments & audio recording equipment
Peripherals & cables used to support the function of ITT/AV, including charging equipment
Handheld point-of-sale terminals or devices
Parts of ITT/AV equipment sold separately, such as hard drives
*Equipment cannot weight more than 250 kilograms.
Collection Sites
Collection site hours, and Electrical and Electronic Equipment accepted may vary by site. Please contact each for more information. Click here to view the list of RLG collection sites under O. Reg. 522/20.
Additional Collection Services
RLG can provide many EEE collection services outside of EEE collection sites, including:
Scheduled pickup services for the disposal of IT and electronic devices to industrial, commercial, and institutional clients for varying volumes of equipment
Community collection events
Ongoing pickup services from businesses, hospitals, and public organizations
Drop off and pick up of a temporary collection bin to provide an easy drop off point for buildings that need to get rid of large quantities of unwanted electronics in a short period of time
Direct shipment of material and devices to our processors via courier
Drop-offs at processor facility (by appointment only)
School and community group fundraising
Onsite white glove service for decommissioning, audit, packing, consolidation, and transportation services for IT and electronic devices*
Data erasure, serial number capture and shredding of materials at a customer’s location*
*A charge may apply for this service. For more information contact us at ontario@RLGmericas.com.
Resource Recovery Activities
RLG’s processor partners are R2, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified and audited annually by RLG to ensure compliance to the highest standards. Processing activities will follow the hierarchy of reuse/refurbishment before recycling and recycling before any type of disposal.
Incoming equipment is evaluated to maximize value and resource recovery by first determining if material can be refurbished and resold (data-bearing devices are securely wiped, erased, and tested).
End of life processing includes sorting, separation, and disassembly of material via manual and mechanical processes to generate commodities that are sent to local and international downstream vendors for recycling and reuse.
For example, circuit boards are sent to precious metal refineries and foundries to be melted down for reuse into other products. CRT glass from televisions is sent to specialized processors or metals smelters that recycle the material for reuse. Typical resource recovery activities the most common types of material generated from ITT/AV equipment include:
Plastics: End market include domestic and international approved outlets which refine the plastic by granulating/pelletizing so it can be reused
CRT Glass: lead smelters. Additionally, the panel glass does not contain lead and can be sent to various processors that use this type of glass for applications such as abrasives and other industrial uses.
Ink/toner cartridges: specialty recycler
Batteries: specialty processors
Mercury bearing: mercury retort
Circuit boards and precious metals: sent to refineries and foundries