End-of-Life Computer and Electronics Recovery
Summary:
According to the National Safety Council, over 20 million personal computers became obsolete in 19981. In addition, another 16 million computer monitors and 11 million printers and scanners also became obsolete. For the most part, the rate of technology change in the computer software and hardware industries will continue to increase the
number of obsolete computer products for at least the next five years, leveling off by the year 2005 at an estimated 60 million PCs annually2. The Safety Council also estimates accumulated obsolete PCs from 1997 – 2007 will total approximately 500 million.3 This equates to 15 billion pounds of computers, or, 7.5 million tons of potential waste that must be handled by America’s businesses and citizens. Such a huge quantity of obsolete, complex material represents a potential problem in the field of waste
management, but it also represents a new and challenging opportunity for recycling and economic development specialists throughout the world.
In Europe the main policy emphasis is to establish and mandate industry “takeback” programs, also called extended product responsibility (EPR), requiring industry to initiate obsolete product reclamation and demanufacturing programs. In the United States, where waste disposal problems are still not perceived as imperative due in part to lower overall population densities and to a more open-ended free market waste
management economy, a number of policy options are still on the table for outmoded computers and other electronics.
Format:
Pages : 56
Size: 325 kb
Author : David Biddle, Center for Solid Waste Research
Mid-Atlantic Consortium of Recycling and Economic Development Officials