When the end really comes

[Pearl Louis]

On Monday 06 Jan 2003 6:14 pm, Stephen Rothwell wrote:
> On Mon, 6 Jan 2003 18:01:18 +1100 David Gibson <clug at gibson.dropbear.id.au> 
wrote:
> > So, is there anything I can do with the corpse, which doesn't involve
> > throwing it, with whatever PCBs, heavy metals and other nasties it
> > contains, straight into landfill?
>
> As I just told David, Google for "recycle computer canberra" lead straight
> to http://www.renew.com.au/recycle/
>
> -
> Cheers,
> Stephen Rothwell                    sfr at canb.auug.org.au
> http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~sfr/

OTOH I am a bit skeptical of computer recycling places recently after reading 
quite a few articles in the news about how a lot of the places (at least in 
America where 50-80% of electronic stuff collected for "recycling" are 
actually shipped as landfill to developing nations) don't really recycle the 
computer but just stick it on a boat to China or another developing country 
where it is placed in a dump where it pollutes the land there.  The reason 
being they are going to pocket the money anyway and it is much more cost 
efficient to dump the computers in a developing country than to actually do 
any recycling.  Apparently there is supposed to be a 1989 treaty to stop the 
disposal of hazardous wastes from rich countries to poorer countries but not 
suprisingly the US has yet to ratify it, though I think the EU and Canada 
have.

For example a quick google search brings up some articles on the issue:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2002/02/25/computer-waste.htm
http://www.npr.org/programs/watc/features/2002/apr/computers/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1839997.stm

Does anyone know if this place actually recycles the computers or whether it 
does the "dump it in a developing country" routine?  Actually, does anyone 
know if Australia has ratified this 1989 treaty or has any laws in place that 
outline a formal procedure for recycling electronic goods (so they can't just 
dump it in another country and call it "recycling" as they do in America - of 
course after collecting US$30 from the computer's owners to pay for 
"recycling" the computing...).

Pearl