Investor’s Business Daily - Disposing Of PCs, TVs A Bit Tricky:
Filed under: Earth 911 - December 26, 2006
E-Waste Season’s Here
CHARLES BERMANT
Investor’s Business Daily
December 26, 2006 Tuesday
NATIONAL EDITION
Electronic goods often too old to be donated, too hazardous for dump
After the holidays, the annual load of boxes, wrapping paper and other seasonal waste will make its way into land-fills. This year could see a big supply of e-waste — discarded electronics — because it’s looking like a big season for sales of TV sets, PCs, flat-panel monitors and more. “People will replace a perfectly good 17-inch CRT monitor because they want the latest and greatest new flat screen,” said Randy Lewis, founder and president of SoCal Computer Recyclers in Harbor City, Calif. It’s illegal to drop off e-waste at the local dump. Such wares often have heavy metals that can contaminate ground-water, and they could have other pollutants.
Instead of sending items to the dump, many people and companies prefer to donate them for reuse. Recyclers have some tips. For one, don’t pass along any computer with a visible fault or idiosyncrasy; no one would take a car that needs to be rolled down a hill to be started.
While objectivity can be difficult,keep in mind that many nonprofit organizations don’t want items more than four years old. Some Salvation Army locations require that donated PCs have a Pentium 4 chip at the minimum. Many schools require that donated PCs run on the Windows XP operating system.
It’s also a challenge to simply send e-waste to the scrapheap if you want to be sure your old products don’t end up spoiling a river in China. “You need to find the right place to get rid of these things so someone doesn’t end up drinking them,” said Jon Myers, a spokesman for the California Integrated Waste Management Board.
Whether a specific computer becomes a hand-me-down or scrap metal determines what you’ll want to do with its hard drive. Today’s hard disks are larger and more durable than models from just a few years ago. This progress is good news while using a new computer, but a detriment when it’s time to dispose of the machine.
Reformatting the drive a few times before you discard the machine is a necessary first step. Free software is avail-able that will erase a hard drive. CNET Networks’ Download.com site offers several products. Privately held Mares Software offers a low-cost product called Declasfy, while security software firms Symantec and Mc-Afee also offer hard-drive cleansing programs.
Some recyclers will make sure any information on your hard drive is erased or at least unreadable for crooks look-ing to steal personal information. “We run a series of ones and zeros over a drive seven times to erase the data,” Lewis said. “Then we reformat the drive. After this, the data cannot be recovered.”
When donating a computer as scrap, your options can be more decisive — as long as you know how to use a screw-driver (to open the computer case) and a drill (to put several holes through the drive itself to prevent its operation). Or, as indicated above, use software that permanently erases data on hard drives.
Myers says California leads the nation in computer recycling. The most populous state, he points out, has been at the forefront of recycling things such as bottles, cans and cars.
But every state must pick up the banner, Myers says. “Health is health, and no matter how small or sparse the population may be, you don’t want pollutants in the water table,” he said.
A few Web sites give good advice on disposing of e-waste, including socalrecyclers.com, erecycle.com and re-think.ebay.com. To find recyclers in your area, go to earth911.org.
Lewis says there are no standard guidelines for disposing of TV sets. In California and Massachusetts, he says, the items are considered universal waste, just like computer monitors, because of the amount of lead, mercury and other toxic chemicals in the units. So they must be disposed of under hazardous waste guidelines. Many cities and counties across the nation hold special waste-disposal events, where people can properly get rid of e-waste for little or no charge.
Lewis also points out that e-waste can increase because of outside factors. He cites the rapid popularity of Napster, the first music download site, which sparked a PC upgrade cycle.
“The hardware (life span) is becoming shorter,” he said. “When Napster first came around, everyone needed to up-grade to larger hard disks and faster processors (to download and store music). “So when the next killer app comes along, like the ability to manage a large video library, there will be a lot of computers that we will need to recycle.”