Re: Reuse or Recycle Your Old Computer

Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.org.user-groups.slug.general
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On 03/02/14 13:07, James Linder wrote:

> Tom just for fun (well not really, but for a consider this)
>
> Your old computer uses much more energy than a new one. Powering the
> beast creates much more CO2 than the new ones ...

But about half the energy used by a PC is in its manufacture and 
delivery (called "embedded energy") and half the electricity to run it. 
So the new computer has to save a lot of energy to make up for its 
manufacture. If the components are reused or recycled, rather than 
thrown away, this will lower the energy use. Also newer computers tend 
to have less materials and so take less energy to make: 
http://www.katescomment.com/embedded-energy-of-servers-pc/

My students spend a semester working out the trade-offs between
a new computer using less energy and the waste caused by replacing the
old computer: http://www.tomw.net.au/ict_sustainability/introduction.shtml

> binning it (hopefully decently) ...

Yes, Australian has a "National Television and Computer Recycling 
Scheme", funded by industry. Old equipment is sorted, packed into 
shipping containers and then sent for recycling: 
http://www.environment.gov.au/node/21281


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
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