It’s not so easy being green

The EPA’s blog, Greenversations, recently asked readers, “After you buy a new computer, what do you do with the old one?” Great question. But even better were the answers it garnered. They ranged from the flummoxed (“They are under the bed!”) to the utopian (“People need to quit thinking they need new stuff.”) to the frustrated (“I drove 15 miles to take it to a recycler!”) to (my favorite) the creative (“We turned them into bird houses. The Dell hosted a couple of families but the Gateway was unoccupied this year.”)

But the message is loud and clear: Most of us have no idea what to do with the old one when we get a new computer. “I am constantly running into the responsible disposal issue in my office,” Kathleen wrote to me recently. “I have tried many solutions, including paying someone else to come get them and do something good with them.”

Computers are full of nasty stuff — including cadmium, lead, and mercury — that leach toxins into the water supply or atmosphere if dumped in the landfill or burned. Because we have fairly stringent laws about disposal here in the United States (compared to some parts of the world), much of our cast-off electronic equipment ends up in the landfill of poor countries, where it is burned or left to molder, and endangers the health of already impoverished people who didn’t benefit from those electronics in the first place. It’s clear from the EPA survey that we-the-people know all that, which is why we are hoarding computers under the bed. Even if our trash collector would take them, which he often won’t, we don’t want to throw them away. Who wants to be that person? So what to do?

Unfortunately recycling is not the perfect solution. Computers are difficult to recycle and much of our supposedly recycled electronic waste simply ends up poisoning someone else’s backyard. “If the computer cannot be reused by another consumer, then the EPA recommends recycling the computer,” an EPA spokesperson told me.

The trick to making this work is to move fast. Don’t stash it under the bed for long. But, frankly, finding someone who wants your old computer can create a rather large item on your already crammed to-do list — as Kathleen points out. To that end, TechSoup and Redemtech, have teamed-up and are expanding their Refurbished Computer Initiative , which works with corporations to divert used computers from the waste stream, refurbish them securely, and provide them to nonprofits. “You may already know that refurbishing just two desktop computer systems is equal to reducing the carbon footprint equivalent to operating a car for a full year,” says Jim Lynch, Computer Recycling & Reuse Director at TechSoup’s GreenTech Program. “But did you know that approximately 40 percent of nonprofit workers do not have Pentium-level computers?”

And you can rest assured that even after the non-profit that gets your computer is done with it, your old computer won’t end up in the landfill. Redemtech’s extended end-of-life services ensure that computers donated through the program are recycled responsibly in accordance with a zero-landfill, zero-export, zero-incineration policy.

If you are in a home office and can’t participate in this corporate program, the EPA offers some ideas on donating at its Plug-In To eCycling site. Or try the National Cristina Foundation. This nonprofit will find a needy home for a computer with a little life left in it. Log on, answer a few questions about your computer, and it will find someone in its network that needs just such a thing. Or list it at Freecycle or Craigslist to see if a teen geek-in-training is looking for free parts. (Just be sure you shred the data on the hard drive — or remove the hard drive — first.)

If your computer is very old or hopelessly broken, recycling it may be your only option. (Unless you think it’s old enough to be a museum piece.) You can wait for a recycling event in your area but the companies that sell you new computers are increasingly taking responsibility for disposing of your old one. Dell will take your old computer away for free if you’re buying a new Dell. HP offers a host of recycling options, including some for cell phones. HP hauled away (and promised to recycle responsibly) an old CRT monitor that I had stashed in the attic for a long time for a $17 shipping fee. They sent a shipper to pick it up at my door; all I had to do was slap a label on it, which seemed a fair arrangement. Apple will recycle your old computer free of charge if you are buying a new computer from them and will recycle iPods or any cell phone for free any time. Gateway takes back your old stuff in exchange for a discount on new purchases. Sony offers a host of options, including drop-off centers, trade-in programs, and mail-in recycling programs. Staples takes back all manner of high-tech gear and recycles it. Large items incur a fee but some small items — such as printer cartridges — can be redeemed for store credit.

I know some of you InfoWorld readers have come up with brilliant solutions to this problem. So tell us: What do you do with old computers, cell phones, and PDAs?