Green IT

11 DESTINATION LANDFILL

One big area of concern in the world of green IT is the eventual fate of discarded electronic systems that contain semiconductor devices, such as computers, pagers, mobile phones and televisions. Justin Richards, BCS, explores what can be done to minimise the environmental impact of electronic equipment.

Personal computers, in particular, are problematic because they become obsolete fairly rapidly and lose almost all of their market value within five or ten years after their date of manufacture. PCs pose an environmental risk not only through their sheer bulk in city dumps and landfills, but also because their semiconducting devices often contain significant amounts of heavy metals, including lead and other potentially ...