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 Heavy metal 101Fish taleE-Waste Not, Want NotThe FutureWhat can I do?The Future  It seems like heavy metals are an insurmountable environmental issue. But they're not. Things might be bad, but there has been progress. For example, in Canada, we did away with leaded gas and leaded paint in homes. And before the late 1980's lead was widely used in the soldering of food can side seams until canners replaced it with welded seams. Anyone miss these things? When it comes to other products, there's still lots we can do. Just imagine if you could simply and easily send products with heavy metals, such as computers, TVs, and batteries, right back to the manufacturers at the end of their lifecycle. The David Suzuki Foundation is working to make this a reality. "Extended Producer Responsibility" regulations require manufacturers to take back their products at the end of their useful life. Similar laws have worked wonders in Europe, where even car parts are recyclable. And the Foundation wants to make this a reality in Canada. One U.S. company that is reducing waste and realizing incredible profits is Interface, one of the world's leading carpet manufacturers. (Interface founder, Ray Anderson, is on the Foundation's Board of Directors.) According to Fast Company magazine, "From 1995 to 1996, sales at the publicly traded company grew from $800 million to $1 billion. During that same period, the amount of raw materials used by the company dropped almost 20% per dollar of sales." Learn more:
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