This sheet provides strategies that government agencies, businesses, individuals, and institutions like schools and hospitals can use to reduce the volume and toxicity of their electronics waste.


Why Reduce Computer Waste?
Computer Waste Prevention Strategies
The Value of Leasing and Take-Back
Government Efforts to Prevent Computer Waste
Environmental Factors to Consider When you are buying Computers
Chemicals and Plastics there are in the computer that can cause serious harm
Where to find additional information
Bibliography

Why Reduce Computer Waste?
Computer waste is a serious environmental problem because of its toxicity. According to a study by the New Jersey Institute of Technology, consumer electronics account for only 1 percent of the content of landfills by volume, but they contribute up to 70 percent of their toxic content.

For example:
The cathode ray tubes (CRTs) in most computer monitors and television screens have x-ray shields that contain 4 to 8 pounds of lead, mostly embedded in glass. Discarded monitors and televisions are believed to be the largest sources of lead in landfills. CRTs are considered hazardous waste .

A PC's central processing unit (CPU) contains toxic heavy metals such as mercury (in switches), lead (in solder on circuit boards), and cadmium (in batteries).

Plastics used to house computer equipment and cover wire cables often contains polybrominated flame retardants, a class of chemicals that were detected not long ago in fish in Wisconsin. Studies indicate that ingesting these substances can increase the risk of cancer, liver damage, and immune system dysfunction.

Lead, mercury, cadmium, and polybrominated flame retardants are all PBTs that can create environment and health dangers when computers are manufactured, incinerated, ect during recycling. PBTs can reach dangerous levels in living creatures, and are harmful to human health and the environment, and they have been linked with cancer, nerve damage, reproductive disorders, and other health problems.

Computer Waste Prevention Strategies
1. Upgrade existing computer equipment
Upgrade a computer delays its entrance into the waste stream. By making bigger your computer's useful life, you can save money by reducing costs and the need to buy new equipment. Computer refurbishers can add memory and other things to upgrade existing systems, and also fix and replace broken parts. When a computer cannot be repaired the refurbisher can send it to a recycler. Useles parts can be broken so you'll recover valuable metals (like silver and gold) and sometimes other scrap materials (like plastic, glass, and other metals)
2. Purchase used computer equipment
Used computers can be a good option for project-specific tasks of limited duration . The first place to look for high quality used computer equipment can be the surplus management program run by your state, locality, ect.
3.When you are looking for new systems, choose equipment that you can use for a long time or be easily upgraded.
Equipment that can be upgraded may cost more , but it will be cheaper than replacing the whole system. To facilitate upgrades, buy computers with additional memory chips and other functions. Ask vendors for equipment with maintenance contracts and warranties. Also replace components that become useles and do not buy a whole new system.
4. Ask vendors to take back their computer equipment when they become useles.
Take-back requirements can be written into computer contracts, asking vendors to reuse and recycle their equipment when users don't need them any more. In Massachusetts, for example, the state's Operational Services Division has a preference for vendors that offer programs for the return of used equipment. This makes manufacturers design their products longlasting, nontoxic and recyclable.
5. When you are looking for new computers, make your old ones to be recycled.
You can ask vendors of new equipment to donate or recycle your old computers, regardless of manufacturer . Some computer companies will offer this service for get your business. Require certification that the donated computers are being reused or that obsolete computer equipment is being recycled . Dell's Asset Recovery Service will manage all or part of the computer recycling process for purchasers of new Dell products. The PC Recycling Service collects older equipment for demanufacturing, customers pay $20 por unit.
Gateway's Your:)Ware Recycling Program offers $50 to customers who donate or recycle their old computers when buying new Gateway equipment.
6. Rent computers instead of purchasing them .When customers rent computers the vendor is required to take the equipment back at the end of the lease term. Renting periods are usually short term, but leases cover longer periods.
7. Give used equipment to schools, local nonprofits, ect.
Storing computer equipment that you no longer need makes it less likely to be used again. Many organizations collect used computer equipment from government agencies and businesses and give it to nonprofit organizations and schools. The Electronics Industries Alliance, a trade organization, recently launched the web-based Consumer Education Initiative, which directs users to local charities and schools that collect used electronic equipment.
Computers for Learning distributes used equipment from federal agencies to local schools.
Gifts in Kind America is a organization that gives used equipment to charitable organitations and schools.
8. Contract with a private recycling company to handle your useles equipment at end of life.
Even when computers cannot be reused, they often still have value and should not be thrown away. If computer take-back or leasing is not appropriate for all your computers, make a contract with a recycling vendor (better in your region to spend less in transportation costs) to reuse or recycle your used equipment.
Computer recyclers either reuse functional components in "refurbished" equipment or recycle unusable materials. Ask vendors to make every effort to recycle glass ,plastic, batteries, mercury, ect, instead of recovering only expensive metals like silver, gold, and copper. These organizations have on line directories of local computer recyclers:
The Electronics Industries Alliance's Consumer Education Initiative lists recyclers by state, country, and city.
The Electronics Recycling Initiative, managed by the National Recycling Coalition, lists recyclers by state and includes municipal programs.
The International Association of Electronics Recyclers operates a search engine.

The Value of Leasing and Take-Back
In the US, leasing of personal computers is growing a lot , by 149 percent between 1997 and 1998 alone. The main reason of why users lease computer equipment is to keep pace with technology, leasing allows businesses and government to upgrade more easily than if they owned equipment . Leasing can bring important savings in the costs of new equipment , and reduce liability problems.
Computer leasing is a good business for manufacturers also. IBM, for example, re sells one third of the equipment returned to the company by its corporate leasing programs.Leasing and other take-back programs encourage manufacturers to design their equipment in ways that increase opportunities for re use.

Government Efforts to Prevent Computer Waste in the US
The electronics industry in the United States is very worried about the threat of computer take-back mandates.
In Minnesota, for example, the state Office of Environmental Assistance issued its Project Stewardship Initiative in 1999, instructing producers of computer monitors to find ways of removing their products from the municipal waste stream. This is being followed on a voluntary basis, with threat of legislation if progress is not made.
In response, Sony has a five year agreement with the state of Minnesota and Waste Management, Inc., to take back its products for recycling free of charge.
Like Minnesota, state governments of North America are starting to get serious about the drise in toxic waste from discarded computers and other electronic products. Massachusetts and California, for example, have banned computer monitors and TV sets from landfills and incinerators.
Other Environmental Factors to Consider When You Are Buying Computers
According to the US Department of Energy, users can save $400 over the life of a printer by duplexing. Make sure equipment is set to print double-sided by default.
Choose printers that can use remanufactured toner cartridges, which can save up to 50 percent per copy. Give preference to vendors that offer computer equipment without lead solder and with recycled-content glass or plastic and easily removable components . In Massachusetts, the state's RFR give bidders the chance to "win points for products which were manufactured with less toxic materials, contain recycled content , CRT glass or other parts and were shipped in recycled. Avoid monitors with CRTs. Flat-panel display screens are more energy.
Shop around for the most energy, an efficient model. In 1997, the world's 324 million operating PCs consumed 332 billion kilowat hours of electricity. The EPA now certifies the degree of energy efficiency of computers. Make vendors instal electronic versions of software manuals instead of having paper copies.

Chemicals and plastics in a computer that can cause serious harm

1: Lead in cathode ray tube and solder
2: Arsenic in older cathode ray tubes
5: Antimony trioxide as flame retardant
4: Polybrominated flame retardants in plastic casings, cables and circuit boards
3: Selenium in circuit boards as power supply rectifier
6: Cadmium in circuit boards and semiconductors
7: Chromium in steel as corrosion protection
8: Cobalt in steel for structure and magnetism
9: Mercury in switches

Additional information
For information on the hazards of computers and other electronic equipment, see the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition's Clean Computer Campaign at http://www.svtc.org/ and the Mercury Policy Project at http://www.mercurypolicy.org/.
For more information on environmentally preferable purchasing of computers equipment, see Northwest Product Stewardship Council Computer Subcommittee, A Guide to Environmentally Preferable Computer Purchasing, October 2000, at http://www.govlink.org/nwpsc/computer.htm. Also see "Computers and Monitors," The Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Guide, Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, at http://www.swmcb.org/EPPG/.
For information on state and federal laws and regulations on computers and other electronic devices, see the US Environmental Protection Agency's Product Stewardship sheets at http://www.epa.gov/epr/products/electronics.html.
For information on the take-back and recycling programs see
Compaq at http://www5.compaq.com/financialservices/
Dell at http://www.dell.com/us/en/biz/services/asset_000_assetrecovery.htm
Gateway at http://www.gateway.com/home/programs/recycle.shtml
Hewlett-Packard at http://www.hp.com/go/recycle
IBM at http://www.ibm.com/environment/products/pcrservice.phtml
For independent computer leasing companies, see:
Computer Sales International at http://www.csileasing.com/
Leasing Group at http://www.leasinggroup.com/
Stamford Computer Group at http://www.scgcomputer.com/.
For local computer recyclers, see:
Consumer Education Initiative (Electronics Industries Alliance) at http://www.eia.org/.
Electronics Recycling Initiative (National Recycling Coalition) at http://www.nrc-recycle.org/resources/electronics/index.htm
International Association of Electronics Recyclers at http://www.iaer.org/search.
For information on donating computers, see "Electronics Reuse and Recycling," WasteWise Update, US Environmental Protection Agency, October 2000, at http://www.govlink.org/nwpsc/computer.htm.
For organizations that donate used computers to schools, see:
Computers for Learning at http://www.computers.fed.gov/
Consumer Education Initiative (Electronics Industries Alliance) at http://www.eia.org/
Gifts in Kind America at http://www.giftsinkind.org/
Parents, Educators, and Publishers National Directory of Computer Recycling Programs at http://www.microweb.com/pepsite.

Bibliography

I found this information in the web page of Greenpeace, BBC news, and Information of America Inc, 5 Hanover Square, New York.