Managing Electronic Waste
Electronic waste has not been a problem as long as there were some thousand computers and other electronic devices on our planet. But since they have become a mass application, we have to think seriously about the management of these devices which often have a relatively short lifetime...
Connecticut to become 24th US State with e-waste laws
June 18, 2010: After the news earlier this week that New York adopted electronic waste laws it was now announced that Connecticut would follow up with similar laws in fall. The laws will require consumer electronics manufacturers to front the cost of recycling their products. Additionally recycling facilities will be established throughout the state to make it easier for people to recycle their old electronic devices.
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New York introduces new e-waste laws
June 15, 2010: New York recently passed a new electronic-waste law, making it the 23rd US state to do so. Among other things the law requires manufacturers of consumer electronics to offer free take-back programs starting in April 2011. Additionally every company is required to recycle or reuse a certain amount of electronic waste depending on its share in the consumer electronics market.
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Interpol's Global E-Waste Conference
June 9, 2010: In late May Interpol and the Environmental Protection Agenices of Sweden, the UK and the United States organized a conference focused on way to combat the illegal global trade of electronic waste. The core topic discussed there were experiences with policies and strategies taken by different countries to address this issue.
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Most IT products lack environmental accreditation
May 17, 2010: A survey of approximately 150,000 IT products available on the market today reveiled that almost 80% of them lack environmental accreditation such as the Energy Star or EPEAT labels. At roughly 40% notebooks, desktop PCs and servers were most likely to have been accredited whereas less than 20% of monitors and even fewer printers have undergone the same process. Another issue in this area is the confusion about the varying metrics and standards used by different programs such as Energy Star, EPEAT and Blue Angel.
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Dell uses compostable bamboo packaging
May 14, 2010: The bamboo packaging material which Dell initially introduced with some of its netbooks late last year and is now also used for some of its Inspiron laptops has recently been certified to be compostable. The increasing use of bamboo combined with a redesign of its product boxes to make them smaller are part of the company's efforts to reduce the volume of its product packaging by 10% as well as increase the recycled content by 40% by 2012.
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Portuguese mobile provider uses SIM cards made of paper
April 28, 2010: The Portuguese mobile provider TMN recently announced that it will start selling Samsung's solar-powered Blue Earth mobile phone combined with SIM cards made of paper. While SIM cards today are normally made of plastic, in most cases PVC or polycarbonate, TMN collaborated with two of its suppliers to design and produce a SIM card that's based on recycled paper.
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e-Stewards e-waste recycler certification launch
April 19, 2010: Last week saw the launch of e-Stewards, one of the most ambitious e-waste recycler certification programs available today. e-Stewards's main aims are to eliminate the export of electronic waste to developing nations and stop electronic waste from being burned or dumped in regular municipal landfills. The program is supported both by several dozen environmental organizations ranging from the Basel Action Network and Greenpeace USA to the Sierra Club as well as corporations such as Bank of America, Samsung and Wells Fargo.
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Efforts to reduce the packaging of IT products
April 16, 2010: A recent article revealed that by re-designing and reducing the packaging of its products Cisco was able to save $24 million in annual cost and reduce its demand for packaging materials by 4 million tons. Considering that only a selected number of products was involved in the trial project these results are a clear indication of the benefits that can be gained from reducing product packing.
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Petition in the UK to remove value-added tax (VAT) on IT repairs
March 29, 2010: Comtek - a UK based company active in the IT repair business - has launched a petition to have value-added taxt (VAT) on IT repairs removed. The reasoning behind this move is that the company hopes to make getting old and broken IT and telco equipment repaired more attractive. The main benefit of this would be that fewer equipment ends up having to be recycled since its average lifetime would increase.
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International E-Waste Competition
March 17, 2010: University of Illinois is organizing an International E-Waste Competition which aims to establish discussions around issues such as environmentally responsible product design and other topics within the larger context of electronic waste. Two different categories for submissions are available: designer/artist and technical/geek. Registration and submissions are accepted until April 1 and the winners of the prizes will be announced on April 15.
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UNEP report predicts surge in electronic waste
February 25, 2010: A recently issued report by UNEP outlined some of the current trends when it comes to how much electronic waste is produced and how it is being recycled. According to the report the amount of electronic waste currently increases by approximately 40 million tons per year. Another aspect that is mentioned are the resources such as gold, silver, palladium and cobalt consumed by the ever increasing numbers mobile phones and computers that are being produced. To address these issues it is suggested that countries create e-waste management and recycling centers of excellence drawing upon experiences and knowledge from other countries.
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Potential alternative to OLEDs promises to be fully recyclable
February 9, 2010: Swedish and American researchers recently presented an alternative to the widely used OLEDs which they call organic light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC). Unlike current OLED technology which makes use of the material Indium that is both relatively rare and hard to recycle this new technology promises to be fully recyclable.
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Dell Spells Out E-Waste Policy
May 12, 2009: Dell upped the ante on the information technology (IT) industry's efforts to responsibly deal with broken, outdated or discarded technology with a simple but comprehensive company-wide policy on electronic waste.
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e-Waste Expected to Plateau by 2015
May 6, 2009: According to a study by Pike Research called “Electronics Recycling and E-Waste Issues,” we can expect to see a leveling out of the amount of e-waste heading to landfills by 2015.
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Green IT Becomes More Appealing in Troubled Economic Times
April 7, 2009: A survey of IDC Green IT Forum registrants found that 63% of respondents say that they are currently implementing an IT hardware recycling program at their companies.
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'Serious contamination' threat from Africa's mounting e-waste
April 6, 2009: The Basel Action Network (BAN) estimates that 500 containers of second-hand electronics are imported to Nigeria every month, with three-quarters of the imported products arriving in a broken condition beyond repair.
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Best Buy Recycling Program to Expand Nationwide
February 3, 2009: Best Buy's recycling program will expand to all of its 1,006 US stores beginning February 15. Once the program is in effect, the electronics retailer will accept up to two units per day from each customer.
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Firms Partnering with EPA Recycle More Than 66.5M Pounds of Electronics in 2008
January 9, 2009: Major manufacturers and retailers recycled more than 66.5 million pounds of used consumer electronics last year in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Plug-In To eCycling program.
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HP Ups E-Waste Efforts, Offers Easy Cash for Reusable Electronics
January 7, 2009: After more than a billion pounds of electronics recycled or reused, Hewlett Packard is stepping up the program, announcing a buyback and recycling program for computers, accessories and other electronics.
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Technology Companies Push Indian E-Waste Recycling Programs
December 30, 2008: As a result of increasing pressure and environmental awareness, technology companies have initiated an effort to encourage eco-friendly electronic waste disposal in India.
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The Top Green Computing Stories of 2008; E-Waste: End of Life Takes On a Life of Its Own
December 29, 2008: Electronic waste really started to become big news in mid-September, although it had been building over the course of the year. On September 18, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, released a report calling the EPA on the carpet for what amounts to a total failure to regulate electronic waste, especially that waste that gets sent overseas to be melted down and harvested in some of the most toxic ways imaginable.
What happened in the weeks that followed was a veritable landslide of news about the dangers of electronic waste and the ways that companies are getting ahead of the risk and choosing the greenest and most responsible paths possible.
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EPEAT's 1000th Eco Label Goes to Sony Vaio Laptop
December 11, 2008: The Sony VGN-SR290PDB laptop is the lucky recipient of the 1000th EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) label.
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Webroot Launches Global 'Go Green' Recycling Program
December 10, 2008: Webroot is partnering with Guaranteed Recycling Xperts and Centillion to provide free recycling of legacy security hardware to purchasers of Webroot's new hosted online threat protection solution.
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E.U.'s Proposed WEEE Revisions Signal E-Waste Crackdown
December 8, 2008: The European Commission today issued proposed revisions to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which would significantly toughen the much criticized legislation by imposing recycling targets on IT and electrical equipment manufacturers and making them financially responsible for household collection of e-waste.
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Green IT: Looking Beyond the Data Center
December 3, 2008: Looking Beyond the Data Center
For IT departments, the first response to the emergence of "green IT" has been to focus on data center energy consumption. And many programs have never moved beyond that. But the reality is companies can do much more to reduce IT's environmental footprint while significantly reducing costs.
The answer lies in sustainable computing practices, considered the next phase in the evolution of green IT. Sustainable computing takes a more fundamental approach to green IT by emphasizing the value of the three R's -- reducing the demand for new technology by extending equipment lifecycles; reusing assets when possible through redeployment, resale or charitable donation; and ensuring a zero-impact approach to recycling.
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The answer lies in sustainable computing practices, considered the next phase in the evolution of green IT. Sustainable computing takes a more fundamental approach to green IT by emphasizing the value of the three R's -- reducing the demand for new technology by extending equipment lifecycles; reusing assets when possible through redeployment, resale or charitable donation; and ensuring a zero-impact approach to recycling.
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Beware: Your Firm's E-Waste Could Be Poisoning China
November 19, 2008: One of the thorniest problems with Green IT is what to do with all the computers, monitors, hardware, and other electronics your company no longer needs. You may think that you've solved the problem by choosing a responsible recycler or asset management firm. But according to a recent 60 Minutes segment, that e-waste may end up in unregulated toxic waste dumps in China that foul the land, water, and air, cause cancers and miscarriages, and endanger children.
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New E-Stewards Certification to Set High Bar for E-Waste Recyclers
November 10, 2008: Two NGOs that have led the charge on responsible e-waste takeback have joined with 32 North American electronics recyclers today to set the greenest standards possible for handling toxic electronic waste.
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Lenovo Ups Takeback Plans, EPA Releases New Recycling Standards
November 6, 2008: The continual pendulum of e-waste news swung both back and forth this week as yet another company released an e-waste take-back plan, and although the federal government announced recycling standards for electronics, they fell on deaf ears in the e-waste and enviro community.
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National Instruments Offers Free Take-Back Program for Product Recycling
October 30, 2008: National Instruments has a launched a free global service for customers that allows them to ship NI hardware back to the company for recycling.
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Environmental Groups Back Out of E-Waste Talks, Citing Lack of Progress
October 2, 2008: The Electronics TakeBack Coalition and the Basel Action Network announced today that they're withdrawing from an EPA-led committee to establish e-waste recycling standards after noting that the proposed results will fail to meet their three basic criteria for responsible recycling.
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Lone Star State Launches Mandatory Takeback Rules
September 19, 2008: Texas has become the fourth state to require electronics recycling for all computers and some peripherals.
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EPA's E-Waste Policies Result in 'Anarchy,' Report Finds
September 18, 2008: The Environmental Protection Agency's method of enforcing e-waste regulations in the United States is akin to "putting up a speed limit sign, but no one's writing any tickets."
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Extended Producer Responsibility and the E-Waste Problem
September 16, 2008: A growing number of companies are taking on greater levels of responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products -- from point of manufacturing through to end of the life recycling. E-waste recycling is taking off, but obstacles remain to its widespread practice in North America.
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Lenovo Targets E-Waste, Emissions and Green Power
September 16, 2008: Lenovo joined the nonprofit Climate Group Monday and launched a program aimed at giving customers access to electronics waste services and renewable energy incentives.
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Illegal African E-waste Dumping Highlights Need for Better Policies
August 25, 2008: The government last week was accused of failing in its duty to enforce its own e-waste regulations in the wake of fresh reports that large quantities of broken IT equipment are continuing to be dumped illegally in Africa.
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WEEE Leads to Toxins in Ghana, Greenpeace Finds
August 12, 2008: Toxic chemicals are leaching into soil at scrap yards in Ghana as a result of electronic waste sent to the country from the developed world, according to a Greenpeace investigation.
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LG and Waste Mgmt. Partner to Tackle E-Waste
August 5, 2008: LG Electronics and Waste Management will partner to open more than 160 recycling centers across the country to handle masses of unwanted electronics.
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Five Industry Leaders Earn IDC's First Asset-Disposal Certifications
July 16, 2008: Dell, HP, IBM, Intechra and Redemtech yesterday became the first companies to receive the G.R.A.D.E. certification from IDC, evaluating their performance in handling 34 key areas of IT asset disposal.
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Critics Claim WEEE Failed to Deliver in First Year in U.K.
July 15, 2008: A year on from the implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive in the U.K., critics claim that a number of compliance schemes are on the brink of failure and that many organizations are failing to embrace initiatives designed to promote re-use of IT equipment.
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Lenovo Lends Businesses a Hand With Their E-Waste
June 18, 2008: Lenovo launched a new service arm Tuesday that aims to help businesses manage electronics waste.
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The Promise and Pitfalls of E-Waste Takeback
May 14, 2008: Companies all over the world are starting to realize the positive impact that green business initiatives can have on the bottom line. But for electronics manufacturers, one of the biggest and most-needed improvements is also the most complicated: how to deal with a product at the end of its lifecycle.
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New York mayor approves e-waste program
April 2008:New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill on April 1 requiring manufacturers of computers, monitors,
televisions and other electronic equipment to accept their products for recycling when returned by any person in the city,
and to dispose of the equipment in an environmentally sound manner.
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Greenpeace guide ranks green electronics devices
March 2008: A phone from Sony-Ericsson, a notebook from Sony, and PCs from Dell and Hewlett Packard came top of their
categories in a study of green electronics devices conducted by Greenpeace. There's little cause for celebration,
though, as they only scored around half marks, leaving plenty of room for improvement.
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Eco-Mouse Saves Resources and Energy
Oct 15, 2007: By developing a prototype eco-designed computer mouse, KERP provides evidence,
that life cycle management is indeed a meaningful concept for electronic devices. Features are: no rechargeable or disposable batteries but an
eco-friendly power management, casing is made of a natural material (Arboform, a lignin-based material) and recycling-oriented product design.
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R’07 World Congress: Innovation to improve the recovery of materials and energy
Sept 3-5, 2007: The R’07 World Congress in Davos, Switzerland, promoted innovative technologies and frameworks to improve
material and energy efficiencies in the production, use, and recycling of materials, including ICT waste.
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Fujitsu launches first biodegradable laptop
Aug. 2007: Fujitsu is offering a laptop with a biodegradable chassis made out of plastic derived from cornstarch.
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25-27 April 2007, Hanoi: Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption & Production
The mission of the APRSCP is to foster dialogue among industry, government, academia, and non-government organizations in the region to address pollution problems and solutions.
Electronic Waste and Asia is one of the key topics that will be discussed at the Roundtable.
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StEP - for better management of e-waste
StEP is an initiative of various UN organizations with the overall aim to solve the e-waste problem
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Nairobi, 27.11.2006 - UNEP: Steiner on E-Waste & Cote D’Ivoire Crisis at Basel COP Opening
Speech by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) to the Opening of the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention
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Fujitsu Siemens Video on Used Electronic Devices
Fujitsu Siemens has released a video about remarketing, refurbishing and recycling.
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WEEE Forum - The association of collective WEEE take back systems in Europe
The WEEE Forum is an open non-profit association of voluntary industry-driven collective WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)
take-back systems, taking care of individual producers' responsibility in Europe.
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UNEP: E-waste Managment
Recognising that e-waste is an emergent environmental threat, UNEP has initiated several programmes and activities worldwide.
This website presents basic information, an FAQ and resource links about e-waste.
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European Commission - Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Directives 2002/95/EC on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical
and electronic equipment and 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment are designed
to tackle the fast increasing waste stream of electrical and electronic equipment and complements
European Union measures on landfill and incineration of waste.
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EMPA - Electronic Waste Guide
The Electronic Waste Guide is an knowledge base for the sustainable recycling of e-waste.
The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) has commissioned
the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA)
to conduct a study of the controversial issue of e-waste disposal.
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UNEP - The great e-waste recycling debate
This publication has been prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. The Website includes an Chapter about electronic waste.
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - eCycling
Information about e-waste and the recycling of old computers and other electronic products from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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ebay - Rethink
The Rethink Initiative brings together industry, government and environmental organizations
to offer a fresh perspective and new answers to the challenge of e-waste.
On this site you can find information, tools and solutions that make it easy – and even profitable – to find new users for idle computers and electronics, and responsibly recycle unwanted products.
For more information please follow the external link.
On this site you can find information, tools and solutions that make it easy – and even profitable – to find new users for idle computers and electronics, and responsibly recycle unwanted products.
For more information please follow the external link.
Computer Aid (UK)
Computer Aid in the UK consult businesses for upgrade their PCs to the very latest technology and
encourage them to donate the old one to Computer Aid International for re-use in schools and
community organisations in the developing world.
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Computer Take Back Campaign (USA)
The goal of the Computer TakeBack Campaign is to protect the health and well being of electronics users,
workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics
manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through
effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements.
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Close-the-gap (Germany und Belgium)
Close the Gap aims to contribute towards bridging the digital divide in the world
by giving used computers a second lease of life in a developing country.
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Worldcomputerexchange (USA)
WCE is an international educational nonprofit focused on helping the world's poorest youth
to bridge the disturbing global divides in information, technology and understanding. WCE keeps
donated computers out of landfills and gives them new life connecting youth to the Internet in
developing countries.
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