By Nick Heath, 10 March 2008 12:04
NEWS
Millions of serviceable computers in the UK end up in landfill rather than being recycled, a study has claimed.
The research, sponsored by Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC), found that 12.5 million unwanted PCs and laptops have not been re-used or recycled by their owners.
The survey found that one in four machines are taken to tips and more than one million computers have been dumped in household rubbish or the countryside.
Only one in 10 Brits claimed their discarded computer was recycled via a manufacturer's recycling facility and four in 10 said they gave their old computer to a friend or charity.
Green IT from A to Z
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A is for Abroad
B is for Blades
C is for Carbon footprint
D is for Data centres
E is for Energy sources
F is for Freecycle
G is for Government
H is for Homeworking
I is for Ice caps
J is for Jobs (Steve)
K is for Kilowatts
L is for Landfill
M is for Mercury
N is for Nanogeneration
O is for Offsetting
P is for Paperless office
Q is for Queen
R is for Recycling
S is for SmartPlanet.com
T is for Travel
U is for Upgrade
V is for Virtualisation
W is for WEEE
X is for Xmas
Y is for You
Z is for Zero emissions
A massive 6.2 million people say they have unused computers lying around their home or garden, while 5.1 million took their old computer to their local dump.
Electrical and electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK. Around 1.8 million tonnes are generated every year, with IT equipment accounting for 39 per cent of it.
More than six months on from the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive coming into effect just 26 per cent the 94,600 tonnes of IT WEEE waste is recycled.
FSC said that even for the one in four people who take their rubbish to their local tip, unless their laptop or PC is assessed on the site, there is no guarantee that it will be passed on for re-use or recycled. It said this was a "huge missed opportunity" as with the the right facilities these thrown-away units could easily be reused elsewhere.
The company said assessment facilities need to be at the municipal sites where people drop off their waste.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Simon Cox
I sure we will all recycle our old desktops when we are given somewhere to take them and we have a way of removing teh content completley - I take the hard drives dives out and destroy them but I have at least 3 computers in the loft or lying around the house beciase there is no specialist recycling in my area. the choice at the moment is to dump or store.
2. anonymous
Assessment facilities at the council tip - don't make me laugh.
Council Dump Outsourced Waste Management Contractor Company Operative:
Q. Can I assess I will make £10 in my back pocket on this.
A. No, into the landfill/electrical skip it goes.
Are these people on the same planet.....down the dump, they are worse than Steptoe and Son if they think they will loose out on £1.
3. tuppennyblue
Join your local FREECYCLE group.
There are plenty of people out there who will be pleased to come and take your old computer (or pretty much anything else!) away and even save you the effort of taking it to the tip!
4. Roger Huffadine
I'm probably missing the point somewhere - why must everything be recycled?
Why is there a problem when resources are returned to the earth from whence they came?
5. anonymous
The well-known charity that ships computers overseas was so picky when I tried to recycle our old kit that they ended up being "recycled" into ground-up powder. If old computers aren't useful in the 3rd world, what use can they be put to?
6. John Ray
Perhaps Fujitsu Siemens would like to publicise their recycling facilities.
I store old unused harware because I don't want it to be put in landfill sites.
7. John H Woods
You can download hard-drive wiping software for free. If you don't trust it, you can smash the hard-drive, but you don't need to waste the whole box.
I have found out that if you take WEEE stuff to our local dump, they just tell you to put it into the scrap metal skip.
Instead I now install Ubuntu (or Xubuntu on the really old machines), enable VNC server (so I can give remote assistance) and give them to computer-illiterate friends and family as Surfing/Email appliances.