A report from the UN University is calling for global efforts to reduce the environmental damage caused by computer equipment.
Manufacturing computers is materials intensive; the total fossil fuels used to make one desktop computer weigh over 240 kilograms, some 10 times the weight of the computer itself. This is very high compared to many other goods: For an automobile or refrigerator, for example, the weight of fossil fuels used for production is roughly equal to their weights. Also, substantial quantities of chemicals (22 kg), and water (1,500 kg) are also used. The environmental impacts associated with using fossil fuels (e.g. climate change), chemicals (e.g. possible health effects on microchip production workers) and water (e.g. scarcity in some areas) are significant and deserve attention.
And the short lifetime of today’s IT equipment leads to mountains of waste, the UN University report says. The study says people could be exposed to health risks at both ends of the short lifespan of computer equipment.
Chemicals such as brominated flame retardants and heavy metals including lead and cadmium pose potential risks to factory workers and users of water supplies near landfill sites where old computers are dumped. Of particular concern,
is the export of electrical goods waste, often to poorly managed facilities in developing countries, leading to significant health risks.
The authors say that both manufacturers and computer users across the world should be given greater incentives to upgrade or re-use computer hardware instead of discarding it.
The report welcomes the EU legislation on Waste Electronic Equipment (WEE) but states that the environmental benefits and economic costs of recycling computers depends on how the system is implemented. Recycling managed by a monopolist concern, whose main interest is meeting simple recycling targets for a fixed fee, could result in an expensive system with relatively small environmental benefit. A multilateral concern aimed at maximizing profit and reuse across the life cycle presents a more promising picture.
