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By David F. Carr
When your company "refreshes" computers, servers, and routers, getting rid of the old to make way for the new, the result may not be so refreshing for the environment, even if you think you've done everything right.
Consider the case of the City of Denver's contract with Executive Recycling of Englewood, Colo., to take old computer equipment off its hands. The company markets itself as a responsible recycler of eWaste, the toxic refuse our e-economy leaves in its wake. In particular, Executive Recycling made a point of distancing itself from the practice of shipping eWaste overseas to countries with few environmental or worker protection laws.
But then the company turned up in an exposé that aired in November in which 60 Minutes said it had tracked a shipping container full of cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors from the Executive Recycling loading dock to the port of Hong Kong. 60 Minutes then took viewers to a village in China where computer components were being melted down over open braziers for their lead or run through acid baths to extract gold. The report cited studies showing that the region has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world, a six fold increase in the likelihood of miscarriages, and elevated lead in the blood of seven out of ten children Executive Recycling has disputed the accuracy of the 60 Minutes report and suggested that it was the victim of a business partner. It has outlined its defense to the 60 Minutes in a statement on its Web site. The company did not return a call from CIOZone.
Irresponsible disposal of eWaste is an old story, says Frances O'Brien, an analyst who covers asset management issues for Gartner Inc. "I remember an expose from five or six years ago that had the same pictures of little kids playing in this muck from all the equipment that's lying there broken," she says.
O'Brien's general advice to information technology and procurement executives who deal with this issue hasn't changed for years - for most organizations, outsourcing the disposal of old equipment to "a reputable player" is the right answer. "But you really have to do your due diligence when you select somebody," she says.
Sarah O'Brien, Outreach Director for the Green Electronics Council, says Fortune 500 companies are typically well aware of the eWaste issue and are taking steps to address it responsibly. "But it's sometimes not easy to tell, even though you think you're doing the right thing and have contracted with a vendor that makes the proper assurances," she says.
Next: Computer Refuse: A Toxic Combination
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