16 Crosby Rd
Waterloo
Liverpool
L22 0NY
- 0151 285 4000
Reg. Charity No. 1003218
Company Info :: Latest News
:: 3tc Gets Ready for Computer Waste Time-Bomb
Businesses and consumers are still unaware of new laws that will soon affect how they buy or dispose of computers
Concern continues to grow over the worldwide environmental damage caused by computer equipment as millions of perfectly good computers are thrown out every year in the UK. Most people don’t know that their computers contain a potentially lethal cocktail of chemicals such as mercury, lead and arsenic and fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.
New European legislation is now being introduced which will outlaw dumping in landfill waste sites and the responsibility of disposing of unwanted computers will fall to manufacturers and retailers. The new laws also give households the right to return waste electrical and electronic equipment free of charge and make producers or suppliers responsible for the cost of collection and recycling. Over the next year the cost of recycling could make a big difference to how much consumers will have to pay for a new PC and many experts are predicting a rise in the average cost of a computer.
3tc has been ahead of the rest of the UK for the past 2 years. The charity is already collecting computers from ethically responsible companies like Lever Faberge, Barclays, Liverpool University and Alliance & Leicester, as well as SMEs, and is giving them a new lease of life.
3tc is getting ready for a surge of computers that could be recycled or reused as businesses are forced to take more responsibility for computer waste. The government is about to launch a massive promotional campaign aimed at consumers to highlight the link between dumping computers and the severe health risks from contaminated water supplies.
People are beginning to see the refurbished option as more attractive as the computers are no longer yesterday's technology. The rapid upgrade cycles of the UK’s big corporations means that in some cases computers released just six months ago are already making their way on to the refurbished market.As well as helping to protect the environment, 3tc creates new jobs by taking long-term unemployed people and giving them a job working alongside technicians to refurbish the machines whilst earning a salary, good qualifications and the prospect of a permanent job in the IT industry
The United Nations is so concerned over the growing computer mountain that it is already calling on governments to offer more incentives for people to use refurbished computers instead of new ones - including tax breaks.
Buying recycled computers doesn’t cost the earth as 3tc, an initiative backed by European funding and supported by Energy Minister Stephen Timms MP can sell refurbished computers at a greatly reduced price. For example, a refurbished Pentium 2 PC, with new memory, CD Rom and modem can be sold for just £99. All the profits 3tc make from the scheme go back into initiatives to bring information technology and training to communities across Merseyside that are tackling hardship and social exclusion.
:: The facts about computer waste
- To make a new computer requires at least 10 times its weight in fossil fuels and chemicals.
- The manufacture of just one computer consumes 240kg of fossil fuels, 22kg of chemicals and 1,500kg of water!
- Car manufacturing is far less energy intensive, each vehicle requiring at most only twice its weight in fossil fuels.
- Computers have found their way into nearly every home and office, yet sales keep soaring. In 2003, the number of personal computers in the world topped 1bn and sales continue to rise at around 130m a year. What's happening to the old computers?
- Copper, gold and silver can all be recovered from discarded computers. But tonnes of old desktop PCs are still shipped to developing countries for recycling, where the processes used - such as baths of acid to strip metals from circuit boards - are environmentally damaging.
- People normally keep fridges for 15 years, but you see computers getting thrown out after just three years, so five times as many computers are being dumped.
Give your 'old' PC a new lease life. Start by clicking here.
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