PC recycling: are you destroying the environment with your computer?

The PC and its plastic peripheral friends have become an integral part of our lives, and each day they get faster, better looking and cheaper. We’re constantly urged to upgrade to the next best thing, blissfully unaware of the impact that we’re having on the environment by chucking out our old computers.

We bin a hell of lot of stuff – around one million tonnes of electronic waste every year in the United Kingdom alone, according to the Environment Agency. And much of what we get rid of either ends up in landfi ll sites, where the toxic chemicals can leak into our soil and rivers, or gets illegally shipped over to developing countries, where it has a serious impact on the environment and the people living there.

“Much of it comes from Europe and goes to China, India and West Africa,” says Martin Hojsik of Greenpeace. “It’s highly illegal, but because it’s costly to recycle, shady businesses will dump abroad. Containers – which are often disguised – are shipped overseas, and it’s diffi cult for the authorities to enforce the law.”

Even when PC parts aren’t dumped abroad, some companies illegally employ immigrant workers to extract valuable materials without proper protection for themselves or the environment. As Tony Roberts, director of charity Computer Aid International explains, “If you took a tonne of computer parts and a tonne of gold ore, there’d be more gold in the computer parts. It’s a highly lucrative business and some companies are making millions out of it.”

Pass it on

Of course, not all companies are so irresponsible. Many donate their old computer equipment to non-profit charities – such as those found at www.itforcharities.co.uk/pcs.htm – who pass it on to people who are able to make good use of it, such as schools and health organisations in developing countries. Computer Aid International, for example, refurbishes the computers it’s given by thoroughly wiping any remaining data and upgrading any parts as necessary. Not everything can be re-used, though. If it’s just too slow, or completely broken, it must be recycled.

“In an ideal world we’d re-use everything, but realistically we manage to re-use about 80 per cent of what we’re given,” Tony Roberts explains. “What can’t be re-used is sent to either Holland or Germany and properly disposed of. We get documentary evidence of the process to prove that it’s being done properly.”

It’s a step in the right direction, but relying on the voluntary sector alone is never going to be a total solution. The EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which came into force in the UK on 1 July, aims to put a noose around e-waste altogether and ensure that all businesses and organisations are responsible for the proper reuse, recycling and recovery of their used computer parts.

One of the aims of the legislation is improving the design and manufacture of products so that they contain less toxic chemicals and are easier and cheaper to recycle. An example of this approach is the Asus EcoBook. It has a very basic construction with fewer parts than a conventional notebook, it’s partly biodegradable and it contains less toxic chemicals, so it’s easier to dismantle and dispose of.

Asus isn’t just trying to fill a niche with a gimmick, either: this is what consumers really want. According to market research by Ipsos MORI, Britons are willing to pay an average of £64 more (based on a new computer costing £500) for a more environmentallyfriendly computer. So those companies that do less for the environment stand to lose more from the buying public.

Recycle it

If you’re starting to panic about where to put that broken radio or melted motherboard, don’t worry – there are plans for more recycling facilities to be made available. There’ll be more local recycling outfits, and more manufacturers will offer a takeback service, where they’ll collect your PC bits and recycle them.

In practice, the WEEE Directive probably won’t guarantee that every bit of e-waste stays on these shores. But by getting law-abiding manufacturers to deal with the waste they produce appropriately, including waste management facilities, we should see a big reduction in the amount that ends up in the e-waste cowboys’ hands. Maybe one day, products that fully conform to the WEEE regulations will have a stamp of approval, so we know that when we buy them, we’re doing our bit for the environment.