[Yr7-10it] E-waste and Computer Bank

[Tony Forster]

Roland,

While sending computers to a recycler is better than dumping them, the 
claims to environmental friendliness need to be examined. More importantly, 
any thought that there is zero environmental impact should be dispelled. Any 
reduction in material waste streams will come at a high energy penalty. Here 
is a website extract with further questions by me.

We send monitors to a Government endorsed processing facility
Endorsed by which government for what? What are the energy inputs and 
environmental outputs?

We send scrap metal (mainly empty cases) to a metal recycler.
There is a reduction in energy use that may be outweighed by transport fuel 
increase.

We send computer boards, power supplies, floppy drives, CD/DVD drives, 
CPU's, old and dead hard drives, cables and chips for metal extraction
I think the facility is overseas, so higher transport energy use, energy in 
recycling, only the metals recycled?

We take polystyrene (from packaging that gets sent to us) to a compaction 
centre where it is eventually turned into picture frames.
Are they short life frames or a quality product?

Most of our plastics get turned into long life building products such as 
fence posts and pellets
Not quality products. High energy inputs? Emissions to air/water in 
processing?

Despite our best efforts we have yet to find a solution for some of the 
waste that is generated (some plastic and lead glass) these end up as 
landfill once all recoverable material has been removed.

Tony



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roland Gesthuizen" <rgesthuizen at gmail.com>
To: "7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers" <yr7-10it at edulists.com.au>; 
"elearning Teachers" <elearning at edulists.com.au>; "Kylie Davies" 
<mailkylie at optushome.com.au>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 3:47 PM
Subject: [Yr7-10it] E-waste and Computer Bank


> G'day all,
>
> About 1.6 million old computers are being dumped in landfills every year 
> and the figure is set to climb. Here are some interesting figures that are 
> worth sharing about.
> 
> http://newsletters.fairfax.com.au/cgi-bin16/DM/y/hBaPs0T1Lak0Jhb0QkVO0Ep
>
> Instead of scrapping monitors, junking computer shells or filling the 
> dumpster with eWaste, our college paid for a batch of this equipment to be 
> sent to the Victorian ComputerBank office. At least we can be confident 
> that this gear will be recycled or reused and not end up as toxic landfill 
> for former students to manage. :-)
>      http://www.computerbank.org.au/contact
>
> Regards Roland
>
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