eBay Heads Up PC Recycling Effort

January 6, 2005

Concerned about the possible environmental effects of ditching your old computer? This exciting story appeared on TMCnet today:

eBay Launches PC Reuse and Recycling Initiative

Electronic workflow is sometimes touted as an environmentally-sound business strategy because it supposedly means that fewer trees will be turned into paper. (I guess that could be true in principle, but I doubt that it is in practice. And I think that the idea of a 'paperless office' has more appeal in terms of workplace efficiencies than environmental conservation.)

But computer manfacturing is a process that creates pollution in itself, and given the short useful life of a PC, the industry undoubtedly creates a large volume of toxic waste.

This quote from the news release gives some idea of the scope of the problem:

"Industry analyst Gartner estimates that in the U.S. alone, about 133,000 PCs per day are currently being retired and replaced by their original owners. These systems may contain hazardous materials, such as plastic, lead, cadmium, chromium, and mercury that need to be handled in an environmentally responsible manner. Yet Americans' understanding of recycling and reuse options remains limited -- only about 10 percent of unwanted PCs in the U.S. are recycled, according to the Grass Roots Recycling Network."

To try and make some headway against this problem, eBay has teamed up with Intel, Apple, Gateway, HP, IBM and others, to put together a program of education and facilitation to bring about greater awareness and better processes for reusing and safely disposing of old PCs.

It's about time! Gives me some hope for dealing with the growing stack of obsolete equipment in my basement ....

AB -- 1/6/05