When computers die

When computers die

By Barry Healy

What happens to old computers when they die? Is there a sort of "elephants' graveyard" where they all disappear? Yes, in a way. It's called the Third World.

The technological revolution has created a mountain of discarded computers, printers, televisions, telephones and other electronic equipment. In the US alone, it is estimated that up to 150 million used computers will be dumped into land fills by 2005, at disposal costs of more than US$1 billion.

The equipment contains small quantities of recoverable metals like gold, silver, cadmium and copper, but recovery costs are high. The cheap option is to ship it all to low wage, low environmental standards countries.

The easy way to recover the worthwhile metals is to burn the scrap, which creates terrible air pollution. Then dangerous metals from the ash leach into waterways and land.

Switzerland is moving to force manufacturers to "take back" scrapped goods, and a waste disposal fee is included in the original price. The RMIT Centre for Design in Melbourne recently recommended that Australia also develop an industry take-back scheme.

From GLW issue 293