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What Steps Should a CIO Take?
So what can a CIO do to ensure that the company's old PCs are responsibly recycled or disposed of? The key, Maser's Roman suggests, is to find a recycling partner that actually takes the time to de-manufacture the computer. "Make sure they are doing the disassembly, removing the batteries, and separating out the glass, the lead, and the other materials, and providing the documentation to prove they are doing it," she says. "Most people don't take the time to do the checking. Otherwise, if you're the CIO at a big company, and you're responsible for the disposition of thousands of PCs, how do you really know?"
Despite the efforts to improve the recycling of e-waste, and fledgling programs for converting it to energy, many companies continue to turn over their used computers to "recyclers" that simply sell the material to a broker, who in turn, ships it to China.
In an attempt to put an end to this practice, two environmental groups, ETBC and the Basel Action Network, last November announced a plan to create an e-waste accreditation and certification program that will launch next year. It will be North America's first independently audited and accredited e-waste recycler certification program, according to BAN, which is named after the 1992 Basel Convention, an international treaty aimed at reducing the shipment of hazardous waste to developing countries. The U.S. is one of only a few countries that have declined to ratify the treaty.
Meanwhile, the fact is that most companies' e-waste still gets a one-way ticket overseas. "Most companies are just exporting the electronic waste," says Barbara Kyle, national coordinator for ETBC in San Francisco. "If you're going to do it the right way, you need to have safe disassembly into different materials streams, and recover as much as possible."
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