Page II: Fears of the Millennium Bug drove a generation of companies to upgrade their PCs, but four years on, those systems need to be replaced and such a mammoth task has serious environmental implications.
The world's largest PC manufacturer, Dell, refused to "speculate on any figures" when questioned on the accuracy on Gartner's predictions of a possible price-hike. All a spokesperson for the vendor would say is that WEEE would affect different countries in different ways and that Dell's direct selling model would continue to give it an advantage over its competition.
"In terms of this report, it is too early to speculate but the costs will reside in different places for different countries, I think that is where we are right now," says Lena Pripp, Dell EMEA Sustainable Business Development manager.
It may be reluctant to speculate on the pricing impact of the WEEE legislation, but Dell is keen to be seen as green. In a statement issued late last month, the company said it was committed to boosting the recovery of used computer products by 50 percent compared with the amount collected in the last fiscal year. "We've shown that Dell can continue to grow while being environmentally responsible," said Dell chairman and chief executive officer Michael Dell. "We are determined to address the challenge of raising computer recycling rates globally and being the first in the industry to set public recovery goals."
But despite these ambitious targets, the company admits that current recovery rates represent less than 10 percent of Dell products sold in 2000. "We have a significant challenge ahead of us this year ... we're happy with the direction of the numbers but we must increase our recovery rates."
According to the SVTC, Dell has definitely improved its approach to recycling -- climbing from the bottom rung of the environmental group's annual report card last year to second place in 2004. "This transformation is largely due to the company's launch of a domestic recycling programme and the elimination of prison labour for processing hazardous waste."
Hewlett-Packard, which achieved the top slot in the SVTC report card, is also keen to be seen as proactive on the recycling front. Last year, it launched an e-coupon scheme in the US. This rewarded customers with up to $100 off the purchase of any new product on its e-commerce site when recycling hardware from any manufacturer through its recycling service.
HP also claims to recycle an average of 3.5 million pounds of equipment each month in the US. But although this figure is laudable, it is hard to gauge how effective the company's efforts are because it currently does not track returned and recycled products against sales numbers.
Overall, the SVTC claims that PC vendors have a long way to go before their approach to recycling and disposal is up to snuff. The group claims that most of the changes implemented by the likes of HP and Dell are being driven by policy and consumer pressure. "It a thousand mile journey begins with a first step, then the journey toward environmental sustainability begins with manufacturers taking responsibility for the environmental performance of their products, from the design stage to recycling and disposal," said SVTC spokesperson Ted Smith.
IT managers mainly concerned with buying the next new shiny piece of equipment may need to accommodate the idea of managing the complete lifecycle of these products, from purchase to disposal. The WEEE directive, a draft regulation of which is expected on 14 June, will have the biggest initial impact, and should set strict targets on how users should recycle their equipment and how components can be used.
"Enterprises should think of PC disposal as an integral part of their equipment's lifecycle management. The problem will get worse before it gets better. The lifecycle of a PC can be managed cost-effectively without too many unpleasant legal surprises and in terms of total cost of ownership, but only if planned from the acquisition onward," advises Gartner.
ZDNet UK's Andrew Donoghue reported from London. For more coverage on ZDNet UK Insight, click here.
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Interesting article. As a major insurance company we have a heap of old stuff that has been replaced / refreshed.
We pay a Melbourne computer company to remove our old stuff. They'll take old units away and dispose / recycle for charity / government crisis support type orgs.
They have a web.. www.aitalliance.com.au (??)
Started taking our junk away in less than a week.
Even made sure the HDD's were wiped.
James.