Recycles.Org  BETA Nonprofit Materials Exchange Network Computer & Office Electronics Recycling & Reuse

Date: Sunday, 7 August 2005

Title: Cyber junk's second life

Source: http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/

Remarks: Ian Grayson and Anthony Fordham

AUSTRALIANS love personal computers, so much so that they purchase about three million of them each year. Enticed by the combination of rapid technical advances and plummeting prices, consumers are reaching for their wallets and taking home the silicon-powered boxes in record numbers. Businesses are also spending up big. Many large companies have a policy of replacing their PCs every few years to reduce maintenance costs and ensure staff can use the latest software with ease. But, with the rising number of new PCs finding their way into homes and offices, what is happening to the old machines? In homes, old PCs might find a new life as a hand-me-down computer for the kids or be stored at the back of a cupboard in a sort of techno-graveyard. In companies, where hundreds or even thousands of PCs are replaced at once, the problem is much larger. Many are simply dumped, but pressure is now growing to find better ways of reusing or recycling PCs and associated IT equipment. The argument is, the fact that something is superseded doesn't mean it's no good for something else. Around the country, many organisations are working to take discarded PCs and find them new homes. One such group, Computerbank, takes old PCs, refurbishes them, and passes them to people on low incomes. Computerbank Victoria co-ordinator Kylie Davies says her organisation accepts computers from private and corporate donors through volunteer groups in Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia. "We can reuse PCs that are of Pentium II standard or above," she says. "Anything lower than that we send for recycling." When a suitable PC is received, its hard drive is wiped and a Linux operating system installed. Davies says Linux is used because it is free and easily learned by users. "We also offer training and support for recipients so they are not left on their own when they receive their PC," she says. While newer computers often find good homes, many of the older PCs are either not suitable or too damaged to be of use. Rather than ending up in landfill, increasing numbers are being recycled using environmentally friendly methods. Manufacturing company Sims Group has a national recycling program targeting computers and other electronics devices, such as televisions and mobile phones. Sims e-recycling Victorian manager Rick Wakelin says his company launched the scheme in March and is collecting thousands of computers and other electronic devices each month. "There's certainly a strong demand for this kind of service," he says. "We have a drop-off point in Melbourne and are looking to establish others in Brisbane and Sydney in the next six months." To cover costs Sims charges between $10 and $25 per PC left for recycling, depending on the numbers involved. A recent survey, conducted by Sims in association with the City of Melbourne, found more than 40 per cent of residents were happy to pay a fee if they knew their equipment would be recycled or disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. Others say the cost should be borne either by local councils or by the PC manufacturers. Wakelin says it is possible to recycle more than 90 per cent of a PC by breaking it down into component parts. "The metal case can be used as scrap and the plastic cases can be reused to make other items," Wakelin says. "You can even grind down the printed circuit boards and components and then extract the metal to use in other manufacturing processes." Sims undertakes most of the recycling processes in Australia, sending only circuit boards and glass from monitors overseas for special processing. A factory in Holland processes glass from tens of thousands of discarded PC monitors from around the world. Wakelin says about 55 per cent of the glass extracted is sold back to monitor manufacturers, who use it to create new screens. "You have to be careful with some of the materials in PCs," Wakelin says. "Substances such as lead and mercury are used in the electronics and fire-retardant chemicals in the manufacture of the plastics. "The Holland facility has reached the stage that it can recycle about 99 per cent of a cathode ray tube monitor. That has to be better than them ending up in waste dumps." Recycling efforts are also being made by a range of smaller Australian companies. Canberra-based Re-New Computers, which has been running a recycling program for 18 months, reports strong demand from business and private computer users. Re-New Computers manager Stephen Sleegers says each unit is assessed to see if it has parts that can be reused. "Things such as floppy and CD drives can sometimes be taken out and put into reconditioned machines," he says. "Older machines are usually only good for scrap." The market for secondhand and reconditioned PC equipment is relatively small, and being constantly squeezed by the falling prices of new equipment. Secondhand CRT monitors almost worthless as the price of new flatscreens has more than halved in the past 12 months. Dell spokesman Paul McKeon says a typical working desktop PC with an Intel Pentium 4 processor, 256MB of memory and a 40GB hard drive would only be worth around $100 on the resale market. "When you look at the machines that Dell and other vendors are selling for less than $1000, it's tough to sell secondhand machines," he says. Dell is the first PC vendor in Australia to offer a consumer recycling scheme. For a nominal fee it will arrange courier pickup of an unwanted PC, be it a Dell or any other. Each unit is assessed and either refurbished and resold or broken down for recycling. The program also covers peripherals such as printers, keyboards and mice. "If it's judged that your PC has some value for resale, you will be reimbursed and may end up with money in your pocket at the end of the process," McKeon says. Dell cautions consumers to be mindful of personal data stored on hard drives of PCs offered for recycling. Ideally the drives should be wiped before the machine is handed over to the recycler. McKeon says the recycling program actually costs the company money, but it is recognised that having such schemes in place is of growing importance. "If we can get volumes up, we may be able to get to a break-even position, but that is still some way down the road," he says. Of course, recycling doesn't have to be limited to PCs and monitors. In an effort to be greener (and at the same time save some money), more people are recycling the cartridges from their home and office printers. Not surprisingly, printer companies discourage people from refilling cartridges, claiming it can result in poor output and may damage the printer. However, such warnings must compete with the savings on offer. Some ink refillers promise prices more than 50 per cent lower than the cost of an equivalent new cartridge. Refills are possible on almost any type of cartridge, including those for inkjet, bubblejet and laser printers. TOXIC WASTES MOST people would baulk at pouring engine oil down the drain or tossing old car batteries into the rubbish bin, but they may be unaware of the hazards in disposing of old personal computers. Lurking in those innocent beige boxes are substances that can harm humans and the environment unless dealt with in the correct way. Topping the list is lead, which is used mainly in manufacturing PC monitors. According to industry estimates, an average cathode-ray-tube monitor contains more than 1kg of lead, which has been linked to kidney disease and early developmental problems in children. The solder used to connect electronic components also contains lead. If old equipment is dumped as landfill, the lead will, over time, leach out and poison the surrounding environment. Circuit boards, which hold memory and processing chips, connectors and other crucial computer parts, contain metals and chemicals that are harmful if ingested. For example, mercury, which is used in printed circuits and some flatpanel displays, is absorbed into the body and cannot be expelled, and when it reaches a certain level, it has harmful effects. Other toxic chemicals found in PCs include barium, cadmium and beryllium. Even a PC's plastic case, keyboard and mouse contain flame-retardant chemicals, called polybrominated diphenylethers, the effects of which are still being researched. Computer recycling centres, which carefully disassemble PCs and process the components separately, are overcoming problems associated with toxic substances. The glass from CRT monitors is removed, ground down and filtered to remove unwanted residues before being reprocessed back into glass. PC cases can usually be melted down and reused to make other items, and disk drives, CD burners, wireless cards and other components can often be incorporated in other machines. If not, any metal is removed for scrap. Consumers should take old PCs to a recognised recycler to ensure the item's components will be reused and any that can't will be appropriately disposed of. Putting old machines to good use REFURBISHING a superseded office PC does much more than spare the environment, it also helps people in need. Organisations such as the Australian Computer Society run recycling initiatives that make use of volunteer and work-for-the-dole labour to restore old PCs to working order. ACS Recycling Group manager Michael Patkin says the organisation is a Microsoft authorised refurbisher. "We can legally supply PCs with Windows 98SE installed. We also include open-source software such as the Open Office package," he says. Patkin says the refurbished computers are available free of charge to anyone who can demonstrate a need. "Mostly the PCs go to charities or people with Health Care cards who are on low incomes. We also supply machines to asylum seekers and to retirees who are just starting to take up PCs and the internet," Patkin says. Children of disadvantaged families may have difficulty at school if there's no PC at home. "More lessons are becoming dependent on a child having access to a PC at home, and many of these families aren't in a position to go out and spend $1000 or more on a new PC," Patkin says. It's possible to source good-quality refurbished PCs from auctions or from companies that charge about $300 for a system that's only a couple of years old, he says. "Many people don't know about these auctions, though, and don't have the kinds of friends who can put them in touch with companies that are upgrading their networks and throwing out 50 PCs at once. That's where we come in." ACS volunteers receive old computers and work two or three days a week cannibalising machines for parts, and reinstalling operating systems on the refurbished PCs. "There's a tremendous amount of goodwill for what we do. "We get plenty of donations from individuals, not just from businesses," Patkin says. The organisation takes any PC with a Pentium CPU or higher, but prefers Pentium II and Pentium III machines, as these are more capable of browsing the internet. "We have a glut of CRT monitors at the moment, so many that we have to send them to recycling rather than reuse them. "Many companies charge us $10 per monitor for recycling, but we have found a company that pays $80 per tonne for computer scrap," Patkin says. PCs are highly sought after, but printers are more difficult to refurbish. "It can be done, but we often face problems with blocked ink nozzles, which our volunteers don't have the expertise or tools to fix," Patkin says. "We like modems and software, including software licences. Network cards, memory and hard drives are always useful." The Recycling Group accepts Apple Macintosh systems, but has difficulty finding volunteers with the knowledge to refurbish them. "We've some success, and there's demand for Macs from people who want to do graphic design for charities, or while looking for work," he says. The organisation's success stories include setting up an internet cafe in a retirement home, using only refurbished PCs. IT Share, an organisation with similar aims, sent a container full of PCs to East Timor and set up networks using Linux and open-source software.