Taking out the trash
A friend of mine, Vegard Munthe, works for FAIR, an aid organization that ships used but working computers from rich (or industrialized, or first world, or whatever you want to call it) countries to poorer countries for re-use in school labs there. As part of the deal, the computers are shipped back for reprocessing when they are no longer working, to avoid them piling up and causing all kinds of environmental problems. Not so long ago they received their first return shipment - according to Vegard, getting the permits to ship and import what basically amounts to a pile of toxic waste was quite the challenge.
Fun fun fun! Congratulations to Vegard & crew on this important milestone.
I just wonder what can be done with all that stuff once it’s really and truly dead? How much can be reclaimed from dead PC parts?
@mbs: I honestly don’t know. I imagine they salvage the rare metals and let the plastics burn off, hopefully containing the toxic fumes and other by-products somehow.
Wikipedia, as usual, to the rescue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_recycling
The latter link has a little bit about process, but not a lot.
The difficulties in recycling means we ought to extend the useful lifetime of electronic equipment in the first place - and putting it to use at no charge in poorer countries is one way of doing it. FAIR claims to be able to get about four more useful years out of typical computer equipment this way.
Man on the left: “Thanks a lot, but when I said we need monitors I meant the *UN peacekeeping* variety…