Life Cycle: E-Wasted

Life Cycle is a series of posts that follows the secret lives of your stuff.

Take a good look at this photo, in which a Chinese child dismantles wires and other toxic "e-waste" for money. It's one serious result of our giddy hunger for gadgets--iphones, computers, electronics whose missions range from email to porn.

Recently, the world computer population surpassed 1 billion. It's a legion of artificial intelligence that will never die, at least not while humans are around to see it.

The computer species appears to have a high mortality rate (whether due to the rapid progress of technology or an industry conspiracy to ensure that products must be replaced regularly). They "crash" and "die" in droves, their human counterparts literally kicking them to the curb. But there is no heaven, no place in the clouds, for the cold, hard shell once warmed by electrical currents. Once it has left your desk, your computer doesn't disappear. In a sense, it lives on.

Each year, ten million computers land in the toxic graves that are landfills. Nestled among other CPUs and laptops and monitors, their lifeblood oozes out, leaking hazardous materials such as lead into our earth and water sources. Like many products we discard, defunct computers are dead to us but remain a force with which the earth must reckon.

Despite the eco-warning, we're not trying to take away anyone's computer. To paraphrase a line that recently amused us in the 1946 film noir gem The Postman Always Rings Twice, "Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing. But stealing his computer, that's larceny." (We're substituting "computer" for "car," perhaps an apt update on the ultimate symbol of modern freedom and access.)

But be aware, it takes even more energy and resources, pound for pound, to produce a Dell than a Dodge. A 2004 study at United Nations University found that desktop computers require 10 times their weight in fossil fuels and chemicals to manufacture, versus two or three times for cars. This energy-intensive process depletes resources and makes a significant contribution to climate change.

A computer's energy usage has just begun once it leaves the factory, though. In your hands, a standard desktop PC sucks up to 300 watts when in use, nearly half the amount used by your refrigerator It's worth noting that if your computer carries the "Energy Star" sticker and was made before July 2007, the label is somewhat bogus--until that date, the rating only factored energy use while in "standby" mode.

Computers have had their share of positive environmental impacts, such as reducing our paper trail and rendering CD production archaic. But their birth, life and living-deadliness have downsides that you can minimize:

Never toss a computer in the dumpster. It's illegal in most states, and deplorable in all states. Most cities have annual collection days for electronic waste. If your machine is salvageable, find a local company or organization that repairs or beefs up computers for re-use.

Reduce your tech sidekick's impact by programming it to shut down when not in use for, say, 20 minutes (it's hogwash that doing so degrades the machine).

When buying computers, look for greener machines. Dell is one manufacturer attempting offset carbon emissions by investing in green technology. Consult the Electronics Products Environmental Assessment Tool before you shop. Biodegradable plastics and other production improvements mean computers one day might die a natural death.

Next time, we'll kick it Jane Fonda style and look at the eco-implications of your workout.

This post was written by Sarah Smarsh and Simran Sethi. Thanks to the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Lacey Johnston for research assistance and to Greenpeace for the image.

You can catch previews of this and future posts on Green Options.

Comments

[wedjr]

Nice Simran: Consumer electronics manufacturers are tripping over themselves to promote voluntary e-waste collectsion (SONY, Panasonic, et al) to stave off state and federal regulations. People who are connected with such e-waste drop off schemes at festivals and sports events should TOTALLY know where the stuff goes after it is collected. The Waste Management/SONY's various press announcements seem pretty vague. Maybe somebody should ask Joe Aho, senior manager of eCycling, WM Recycle America directly about where the stuff ends up after the trailor-truck doors are closed.

[RobinSeattle]

This is a timely article, Simran. In Guiyu and Nanyang, China, people, a lot ot them migrant workers, live among miles of open piles of old computers, printers and other electronic waste and make a living, about $12 a day in many instances, drawing out the heavy metals contained in the devices through open burning. This has lead to a plague of lead contamination, especially among children in the area. As one can expect, the Chinese government has hindered international efforts to examine their practices in this regard.

The scenes there aren't much different from pictures you have perhaps seen if ragpickers going through open air dumps in the Phillipines and the air in those Chinese communities is polluted by toxic smoke as well.

The U.S. has signed the Basel Convention outlawing the dispatch of toxic waste to third world countries, but the GOP Congress never passed the legislation necessary to implement it. I hope that the Democrats will rectify this. http://www.ban.org/Library/ierarticle.html

[elephantwaylon]

Thanks for the post. I think Apple's Air laptop is ecoish, too, doesn't have all the bad metals...

[Rhenatan]

I'm curious as to which companies ship their e-waste overseas and which companies keep it in the United States (or wherever the purchase was made). Aside from the possibly labor abuses that you alluded to, when recycling is sub contracted out to companies in other countries, there's the potential for a lack of regulation. I think that part of Apple's recycling program involves doing all of the hazardous processing (at least) here in the United States. (Al Gore sits on Apple's board of directors and this may or may not have something to do with their policies.) I'd be interested in finding out which companies have best recycling practices when it comes to electronics....

[RobinSeattle]

FWIW, in the footage I've seen, there was a lot of Hewlett-Packard stuff, but keep in mind that it was a limited view and I am sure there are many others who also ship their waste to China.

[dgreenbaum]

Hmmm, not so sure what your source that shutting down a computer after 20 minutes does not degrade it's performance. :-) Standby or "hibernation" is much better. Continuous turning off and on of computers often strains them, and a dead computer impacts the environment more than an obsolete one.

Ironically it's the *monitor* and not the *computer* that has the greater environmental impact. Old glass "crt" style monitors such much more juice than flatscreens. Either glass or flat screens have various toxic metals that leech into the water table.

Laptops are the energy heros sucking up the least amount of electricity. Newer ones use LED screens that don't have mercury in them.

Freecycle is a GREAT way to get rid of your old tech items and keep them from the landfills, and eventually our glasses of water.

Otherwise there are recipes on the Internet for great projects from obsolete technology. My favorite are the monitors turned into litter boxes!

[smallball]

dgreenbaum-

I've heard both arguments about whether to keep a computer "on" through hibernation at night or shut it down. I have to disagree with your argument that continuously turning it on and off will strain it.

This is what i've learned from the Univ. of Kansas Center for Sustainability regarding ways to make your workplace more green and eco friendly:

"Equipment life is related to the amount of time the equipment is ON. Your computer will wear out faster and become obsolete sooner on its own before you can wear it out by turning it off at night and on in the morning."

My own personal anecdotal experience backs this up as i've found my computer "acts up" more when i don't shut it down at night and therefore feel the need to replace it.