Old PCs toxic in landfill sites

Your computer equipment could contain highly toxic materials.
The European Union is developing a solution.
Composition of a Desktop Personal Computer
Risks related to some e-toxins found in computers

By: Lindsay Wood

Landfill and incinerator facilities are often the final resting-place for electronic waste. Computers, cell phones, electronic games, television sets - are piling up with increasing rapidity, ready to be burned or buried. But are you aware that these leftover gadgets are loaded with toxins that can leak into the groundwater or produce carcinogens and toxins?

Your computer equipment could contain highly toxic materials.

Computer equipment is a complicated assembly of more than 1,000 materials, many of which are highly toxic, such as chlorinated and brominated substances, toxic gases, toxic metals, biologically active materials, acids, plastics and plastic additives.

The average computer has a lifespan of less than two years, and hardware and software companies are constantly generating new programs that fuel the demand for more speed, memory and power. Y2K concerns generated an increase in the number of new systems bought. According to the National Safety Council, as recently as 1994, buyers held on to their computers from four to six years.

The San Francisco Toxic Coalition website states that three quarters of all computers ever bought in the US are sitting in people's attics and basements because they don't know what to do with them.

At the end of last year another 24 million computers in the United States had become "obsolete". Only about 14 percent (or 3.3 million) of these will be recycled or donated. The rest - more than 20 million computers in the U.S. -- will be dumped, incinerated, shipped as waste exports or put into temporary storage in attics, basements, etc.

In contrast, for major appliances such as washing machines, air conditioners, refrigerators, dryers, dishwashers and freezers, the proportion recycled in 1998 was about 70 percent of the number put on the market that year.

The "Electronic Product Recovery and Recycling Baseline Report" --published by the National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center states that by the year 2004, experts estimate that there will be over 315 million obsolete computers in the US.

SVTC say that recycling of hazardous products has little environmental benefit - it simply moves the hazards into secondary products that eventually have to be disposed of. Unless the goal is to redesign the product to use non-hazardous materials, such recycling is a false solution. Carnegie Mellon University estimate that, in four years, there will be 70 million computers in landfills.

To add to the list of injuries, a recent Swedish study found that when computers, fax machines or other electronic equipment are recycled, dust containing toxic flame-retardants is spread in the air.

SVTC also add that the stream of decay involved in electronic scrap significantly contributes to the heavy metals and halogenated substances contained in the municipal waste stream. Because of the variety of different substances found together in "electroscrap", incineration is particularly dangerous. For instance, copper is a catalyst for dioxin formation when flame-retardants are incinerated.

The introduction of waste computers into incinerators results in high concentrations of metals, including heavy metals, in the slag, in the fly ash, the flue gas and in the filter cake. In this context, more than 90 percent of the cadmium put to an incinerator is found in the fly ash and more than 70 percent of the mercury in the filter cake.

Municipal incineration is the largest point source of dioxins into the US and Canadian environments and among the largest point source of heavy metal contamination of the atmosphere.

The European Union is developing a solution.

The European Union is developing a solution that will make producers responsible for taking back their old products. This legislation - which includes "take-back" requirements and toxic materials phase-outs -- also encourages cleaner product design and less waste generation. Under current environmental regulations, a manufacturing facility is responsible for the environmental impacts of its activities; this responsibility does not cover environmental impacts from the products it manufactures.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) encourages producers to prevent pollution and reduce resource and energy use in each stage of the product life cycle through changes in product design and process technology. The term was coined by Thomas Lindhqvist a Swedish professor of environmental economics and was first mandated in Germany on 1991.

Using the principle of EPR, product manufacturers are responsible for the total life-cycle environmental impact of their products, from raw materials extraction and manufacturing to use and disposal (i.e., the product system). The aim of EPR is to encourage producers to prevent pollution and reduce resource and energy consumption at each stage of the product's life cycle.

Examples are partnership agreements with suppliers, consumers, or others; mandatory or voluntary product labeling and disclosure of environmental information; government procurement policies; deposit-refund systems; product take-back programs; product stewardship programs; leasing systems; and life-cycle management programs.

The EC's proposals could cost as much as $18 billion US to $27 billion to implement, estimates the European industry group Orgaville. The electronics industry is lobbying for an extension of the phaseout timetable on the grounds that there are no alternative materials available at the moment.

Many companies have already taken the initiative and are producing cleaner products. Compaq Computer Corp takes back 200,000 computers a year in North America. Hewlett-Packard Company has developed a safe cleaning method for chips using carbon dioxide cleaning as a substitute for hazardous solvents. In 1998 IBM introduced the first computer that uses 100 percent recycled resin (PC/ABS) in all major plastic parts for a total of 3.5 pounds of resin per product.

Researchers at Delft University in Holland are investigating the design of a wind up laptop similar to the wind-up radio that plays one hour for every 20 seconds of hand winding.

Everyone, all those involved along the product chain share responsibility for life-cycle environment impacts of a product, whether buying in parts or complete products or recycling and reusing.

For information on what to do with your old computer see svtc.org for their clean computer campaign and recycling directory.

Composition of a Desktop Personal Computer

Source: Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC).

Plastics Lead Aluminum Germanium Gallium Iron Tin Copper Barium Nickel Zinc Tantalum Indium Vanadium Terbium Beryllium Gold Europium Titanium Ruthenium Cobalt Palladium Manganese Silver Antinomy Bismuth Chromium Cadmium Selenium Niobium Yttrium Rhodium Platinum Mercury Arsenic Silica

Source: Clean Water Action Alliance, SVTC, Clean Water Fund.

Lead - Found in cathode-ray tubes, solders. Each cathode-ray tube can contain five pounds of lead or more. Can cause damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, blood system and kidneys in humans. Damage to a child's brain development has also been noted.

Cadmium - Printed circuit boards, semiconductors. By 2005, a total of more than 2 million pounds will exist in discarded computers. Cadmium and cadmium compounds accumulate in the human body, in particular in kidneys it is adsorbed through respiration but is also taken up with food. Cadmium can easily be accumulated in amounts that cause symptoms of poisoning.

Mercury - Batteries, switches. By 2005, 400,000 pounds across the US. Methylated mercury causes chronic damage to the brain.

Chromium - Used as corrosion protection in steel. By 2005, estimated 1.2 million pounds. Chromium VI can easily pass through membranes of cells and is easily absorbed producing various toxic effects within the cells. It causes strong allergic reactions even in small concentrations. Asthmatic bronchitis is another allergic reaction linked to chromium VI. Chromium VI may also cause DNA damage.

PVC Plastics - Cables and housings. Potential waste of 250 million pounds per year. An MCC study estimated that the largest volume of plastics used in electronics manufacturing (at 26%) was polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which creates more environmental and health hazards than most other type of plastic

Brominated Flame Retardants - Used in electronic products as a means for reducing flammability. In computers, they are used mainly in four applications: in printed circuit boards, in components such as connectors, in plastic covers and in cables. Scientific observations indicate that Polybrominated Diphenylethers (PBDE) might act as endocrine disrupters. Research has revealed that levels of PBDEs in human breast milk are doubling every five years and this has prompted concern because of the effect of these chemicals in young animals

These chemicals make computer recycling particularly hazardous to workers

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