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Computers - The Afterlife
by Yuri Tang ©2004

Have you ever wondered what happens to your old PC when it gets the ‘elbow’ from a newer, leaner, meaner, faster machine?

The average lifespan of a computer is between three to five years. The way technology is moving forward today with sometimes incredible speed, this lifespan could be less. In reality, these computers could function well beyond this given time, but due to advanced applications and software, they usually lack the power to cope at a suitable level of performance.

Around 1.5 Million computers end up on landfill sites around the UK every year. The problem is that, not only does this contribute to the problem of E-Waste, which damages the environment, but also there are a number of schools and small businesses in poorer countries that would love to have these machines.

There are some charities that take these unwanted machines, wipe the hard drive to Ministry of Defence standards and transport them to countries that need them. In the majority of these countries, over 95% of children will leave school never having touched a computer. Getting the PC’s to the designated countries is classed as the easy part. The harder part is training teachers and getting technicians to maintain the computers when they go wrong.

There have been some proposals to tackle the problem of recycling. One is to add a surcharge onto the purchase of new computers. This surcharge will then be put towards funding e-collection programs. This idea was met with some opposition, it was argued that the buyer would have to pay more and they would still not know of the correct way to dispose of the materials.

To try and avoid this added surcharge, there are some large computer companies that offer recycling programs to reduce the number of computers that end up on landfills, though there has been some criticism towards one company’s program.

For a fee the company will arrange for a package to be picked up and taken back to a recycling centre where parts are either salvaged for reuse or disposed of properly. On the face of it, this seems like a good idea, but the criticism comes from where the recycling is done. The company uses prison labour to recycle the PC’s at a reduced cost. It is argued that this is damaging legitimate recycling programs and also reduces the number of jobs in the market.

The company does also work alongside a non-profit charity organisation that works towards donating computers to groups that work with disabled children. Though they will only accept complete desktop systems or laptops that meet a certain criteria.