WEEE (Computer) recycling toolkit
IT-Green is a (Computer / telecoms recycling) (WEEE compliant) recycling company, covering the whole of the UK. It currently operates with a view to provding UK businesses with a safe (licenced and trackable) and secure (certified confidential waste destruction) method of disposing of their IT (e-waste) hardware. Directors anticipate Authorised Treatment Facility status (ATF) by Oct 2008 and AATF (Approved Authorised treatment facility) by Jan 2009. If you're a manufacturer of eee, you need the latter (through a PCS- Producer compliance scheme). If you are a personal user (member of the general public) wanting to recycle your hardware, you can drop it off with us (in Cambridge) or search for a DCF (Designated collection facility)
Wednesday 15 October 2008, 3:30 PM
E-waste strife, recycling computers ethically
I guess you could call it a usual day in the office, phone ringing, guys out on a pretty big collection (7.5 tonne truck filled to the brim with old IT hardware) and Kev stripping down perfectly working P4m laptops (contraband customs and Excise seizures)- life's all tickedy boo. The only downside is the economy. It hasn't had a big impact on the volumes of computers we're recycling, but there's a smattering of potential customers that won't consider paying to recycle their e-waste- even though the majority is hazardous.
The thing is, what was once one of the driving forces behind the idea of a psuedo licenced recycler offering their service for free might have just died a very quick and sudden death. The scrap metal market, upon which a number of recycling companies have depended has literally died over night. Scrap steel prices have plummeted from £200 per tonne to £70- given that you need 300 empty computer cases to make a tonne, the return on work invested is now pretty poor.
Another potential avenue- that of export of recycled computers to developing countries is coming under fire from the Environment Agency and Customs and Excise. The export of WEEE (computers, monitors etc) has long been a controversial subject, with a number of recyclers using export as a way to get rid of non working, very old equipment quickly- and making a quick wedge from it as well.
Although the ports are being policed, there are still loopholes in the whole idea. Export within Europe is still permitted and e-waste is flowing steadily through Cyprus and then onto developing countries.
I'm hoping (in a sick kind of way) that a global economic meltdown might just put a stop to the export of computer waste, it'll become too costly to buy at the other end. Saying all that, with the drop in the economy here and the need to dispose of e-waste, no matter the economic climate, many may just opt for a drop in sale price and export anyway. Then again, our obsolete computer waste sells in developing Countries in $USD, so right now, an exporter (approved or otherwise) can get more bang for his/ her buck.
I guess looking at the whole picture, we'll now see who's in this game for the long haul and who will move on to the next big idea.
The thing is, what was once one of the driving forces behind the idea of a psuedo licenced recycler offering their service for free might have just died a very quick and sudden death. The scrap metal market, upon which a number of recycling companies have depended has literally died over night. Scrap steel prices have plummeted from £200 per tonne to £70- given that you need 300 empty computer cases to make a tonne, the return on work invested is now pretty poor.
Another potential avenue- that of export of recycled computers to developing countries is coming under fire from the Environment Agency and Customs and Excise. The export of WEEE (computers, monitors etc) has long been a controversial subject, with a number of recyclers using export as a way to get rid of non working, very old equipment quickly- and making a quick wedge from it as well.
Although the ports are being policed, there are still loopholes in the whole idea. Export within Europe is still permitted and e-waste is flowing steadily through Cyprus and then onto developing countries.
I'm hoping (in a sick kind of way) that a global economic meltdown might just put a stop to the export of computer waste, it'll become too costly to buy at the other end. Saying all that, with the drop in the economy here and the need to dispose of e-waste, no matter the economic climate, many may just opt for a drop in sale price and export anyway. Then again, our obsolete computer waste sells in developing Countries in $USD, so right now, an exporter (approved or otherwise) can get more bang for his/ her buck.
I guess looking at the whole picture, we'll now see who's in this game for the long haul and who will move on to the next big idea.
Wednesday 8 October 2008, 10:10 AM
Obsolescence....
I've just taken a call from a guy who bought a new system and wanted to use his old PS2 keyboard on his new USB only baseunit. He bought an adapter to convert from PS2 to USB and......... nothing. It won't work- and he's tried it on all sorts of different systems..
The thing is, it's the epitomey of Obsolescence. I've seen it with Apple kit as well (okay, so I ran an online Used Apple Mac store) and, as many of you know, Apple phased out SCSI support on 10.4. We'd get so many customers who'd buy old kit from us, just for SCSI support. The same went for switching from OS 9.2 to OS X. Many of our customers were loathed to as they'd have to buy £2000 of new software for their business and consequently, the second hand price of G4 Macs remained high for a very long time (they fell markedly last year, but still retain a high value 4 years after manufacture!).
What's the point to me posting this? We all know that obsolescence is built into everything don't we? Well, if you go into an Apple Mac store and ask for support for a 10 year old mac, you'll be told that you need to upgrade. If you want support for a peripheral not recognised by Vista, you'll be told to upgrade. It's almost become second nature to us to simply throw something away, rather than fix it- even if it did a job perfectly well. Now, isn't that just a waste of resources? I certainly think so, but it all boils down to keeping that cash flowing through the economy.
The downside to this is that from a recycling point of view, we're still not recycling enough. Old computers (even faulty) still hold an intrinsic value to the original purchaser. The machine would have cost upward of £400 originally and the owner would still see it as having that value. Strip it for parts, re-use components (if at all possible), but the owner won't send it to the graveyard just yet!
The thing is, it's the epitomey of Obsolescence. I've seen it with Apple kit as well (okay, so I ran an online Used Apple Mac store) and, as many of you know, Apple phased out SCSI support on 10.4. We'd get so many customers who'd buy old kit from us, just for SCSI support. The same went for switching from OS 9.2 to OS X. Many of our customers were loathed to as they'd have to buy £2000 of new software for their business and consequently, the second hand price of G4 Macs remained high for a very long time (they fell markedly last year, but still retain a high value 4 years after manufacture!).
What's the point to me posting this? We all know that obsolescence is built into everything don't we? Well, if you go into an Apple Mac store and ask for support for a 10 year old mac, you'll be told that you need to upgrade. If you want support for a peripheral not recognised by Vista, you'll be told to upgrade. It's almost become second nature to us to simply throw something away, rather than fix it- even if it did a job perfectly well. Now, isn't that just a waste of resources? I certainly think so, but it all boils down to keeping that cash flowing through the economy.
The downside to this is that from a recycling point of view, we're still not recycling enough. Old computers (even faulty) still hold an intrinsic value to the original purchaser. The machine would have cost upward of £400 originally and the owner would still see it as having that value. Strip it for parts, re-use components (if at all possible), but the owner won't send it to the graveyard just yet!
