CtrlAltDelete: Rethinking the Lifecycle of IT Equipment

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Ctrl-Alt-Delete Rethinking the Lifecycle of IT
Equipment
Zero Waste SAGreen IT Seminar, 12 November 2007
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Zero Waste - The Context

• worldwide trends - increasing population, greater
  demand for materials, diminishing resource base,
  intensifying physical and financial pressure for
  available resources need to ensure highest and
  best use of resources

• increasing financial legal liability - managing
  waste, including costs of building disposal
  treatment facilities, rehabilitating landfill
  sites

• less tolerance by community for poor practice,
  greater difficulty in finding and establishing
  landfill resource recovery sites

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Zero Waste SA - The Organisation

• a State government agency established to promote
  waste management practices that as far as
  possible
• eliminate waste or its consignment to landfill,
  and

• advance the development of resource recovery and
  recycling

• Zero Waste established 1 July 2003, part of the
  Environment Conservation portfolio

• Zero Waste SA Act 2004 proclaimed 7 May 2004
  incorporates Waste Management Hierarchy,
  internationally accepted approach

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Waste Management Hierarchy
Waste Management Hierarchy seeks to move activity
up from least preferable options in the waste
management hierarchy (treatment disposal) to
most preferable (avoidance reduction)

• AVOID not producing/purchasing materials which
  will become waste

Most Preferable
REDUCE producing/purchasing less materials which
will become waste
Avoid
REUSE using materials more than once before
recycling or disposing of them
Reduce
Reuse
RECYCLE remanufacturing used materials into new
products/resources
Recycle
Recover
RECOVER capturing otherwise wasted resources
(eg. recovering using heat from electricity
generation processes)
Treat
Dispose
TREAT treat materials to minimise harmful
effects on land, water or air
Least Preferable
DISPOSE release materials/pollutants to land,
water or air
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Managing E-Waste
WASTE TARGETS
South Australias Strategic PlanReduce Waste
to Landfill By 25 by 2014
South Australia Strategic Plan Objective 3
Attaining Sustainability Targets
www.saplan.org.au/plan_targets_obj3.php
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Managing E-Waste
WASTE TARGETS
South Australias Waste Strategy
30 increase in recovery of commercial
industrial materials by 2010
South Australias Waste Strategywww.zerowaste.sa.
gov.au/waste_strategy.php
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Managing E-Waste
E-Waste (electrical and electronic waste) high on
list of priority waste streams in every OECD
jurisdiction, including South Australia

• volume of material generated

• toxicity of many of the components including
  lead, mercury and cadmium

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Managing E-Waste
Volume of Material Generated
Estimated 2.2 million new PCs will be sold in
Australia in 2007

• decreasing costs associated with the purchase of
  new products - technology becoming more affordable

• increasing ownership range of computers and
  electrical products

• designed for shorter life spans and/or rapidly
  become obsolete - rate of technological innovation

Environment Australia Computer Waste
Modelwww.environment.gov.au/settlements/publicati
ons/waste/electricals/computer-report/pubs/appendi
xb.pdf
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Managing E-Waste
Volume of Material Generated
Obsolete/unwanted computers in Australia managed
by

• storage (69) due to perceived value and lack
  of awareness of disposal options

• reuse (26) - via non-profit organisations,
  donations to friends, charities, second hand
  stores, small scale re-use enterprises

• recycling (1.5) small amount of electronic and
  electrical equipment recycled

• landfill (3.5) disposal of equipment to
  landfills due to lack of alternatives

Environment Australia Computer Peripherals
Material Project (2001)www.environment.gov.au/set
tlements/publications/waste/electricals/computer-r
eport/index.html
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Managing E-Waste
Volume of Material Generated
Disposal of obsolete computer equipment to
landfill increasing throughout Australia
Estimate of 1.6 million computers sent to
landfill in 2007...
Environment Australia Computer Waste
Modelwww.environment.gov.au/settlements/publicati
ons/waste/electricals/computer-report/pubs/appendi
xb.pdf
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Managing E-Waste
Volume of Material Generated
...estimated almost 1.8 million computers will be
stored in 2007...
...in addition to the 5.3 million computers
already in storage
Environment Australia Computer Waste
Modelwww.environment.gov.au/settlements/publicati
ons/waste/electricals/computer-report/pubs/appendi
xb.pdf
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Managing E-Waste
Toxicity of Components
E-waste contains toxic substances harmful to
human health

E-Waste is HAZARDOUS waste
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(No Transcript)
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E-Waste Toxic Trash
Exporting Harm
Guiyu, China, December 2001 Basel Action
Network www.ban.org
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E-Waste Toxic Trash
Exporting Harm
Guiyu, China, December 2001 Basel Action
Networkwww.ban.org
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Regulation of E-Waste
International
Basel Convention international treaty
established in 1989 to regulate and minimise
transboundary movement and disposal of hazardous
waste came into force in 1992
Hazardous Waste (Regulation of Imports and
Exports) Act 1989 Australias legislative
framework to enact the Basel Convention
Secretariat of the Basel Convention, UN
Environment Programwww.basel.int/ratif/ratif.html
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Regulation of E-Waste
National
Permit must be issued by Federal Minister to
import or export any waste defined as hazardous
in the Act
Section 40AA - person/body corporate guilty of
offence if sells hazardous waste knowing, or
being reckless as to whether the waste is to be
exported, and export permit not in force when the
sale occurs
www.comlaw.gov.au/ComLaw/Legislation/ActCompilatio
n1.nsf/0/B7334F8F33D9F9FACA256F71004E3EE7/file/Ha
zWasteRegExImp89.pdf
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(No Transcript)
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Response to E-Waste in Australia
Federal Government
Environment Protection and Heritage Council
developing a Product Stewardship National
Environmental Protection Measure (NEPM)
Co-regulatory approach - voluntary sector
initiatives underpinned by a regulatory safety
net to capture non-participants
Environment Protection Heritage Council
Product Stewardship NEPM www.ephc.gov.au/nepms/pro
duct_stewardship/product_stewardship.htm
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Management of State Government E-Waste
Computer Recycling Scheme (CRS)

• accepts surplus end of life ICT equipment from
  State government and other sources refurbishes
  surplus PCs for on-selling to schools community
  groups at low cost

• disk sanitisation protocol (Federal Dept of
  Defence standards) carried out on every PC hard
  drive received ensures all hard drives are wiped
  to prior to reuse or disposal so that no data is
  recoverable

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Management of State Government E-Waste
Computer Recycling Scheme (CRS)

• storage and distribution centre for Smart State
  PC Donation Program (CRS estimates it receives
  10 of State government ICT, half of which is
  reusable)

• operates on a cost-recovery basis acts as
  consolidation point for collection of end of life
  equipment for recycling and recovery

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Management of State Government E-Waste
Computer Recycling Scheme (CRS)
2005-06 Financial Year

• accepted 13,370 items of ICT equipment from all
  sources refurbished redistributed 6,480 items
  to schools, community groups

• CRS estimates its recycling of end of life ICT
  equipment prevented 225,000kg (225 tonnes) of
  e-waste from going to landfill

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Management of State Government E-Waste
Computer Recycling Scheme (CRS)
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E-Waste Life Cycle Thinking
Procurement

• procurement is first point of materials
  metabolism - what goes in, must come out

• fate of material at the end of its life cycle is
  determined at the design/procurement stage

• procurement specifications can send market
  signals to encourage design for disassembly and
  recycling, and reduction of hazardous substances

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E-Waste Life Cycle Thinking
Procurement

• procurement also relevant to purchasing
  waste/recycling services

• need to develop specifications/standards for
  managing of end-of-life material that cannot be
  reused/refurbished

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E-Waste Life Cycle Thinking
End of Life Equipment
Need for systems which can demonstrate that

• diversion from landfill of all end of life
  equipment has been maximised, AND

• material collected for recycling is via processes
  which have a high percentage of resource
  recovery, and can achieve highest and best use of
  resources

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E-Waste is dogging high-tech society...
Monitors dumped by recyclers on Tai Lon Wan
Beach, Hong Kong 1 Oct 2006
Image from Reuters via Planet Ark
www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm?newsid38359
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...concern is not just for waste, but also
resource demands...
WEEE Man 7 metre high sculpture weighing 3.3
tonnes average amount of waste electrical and
electronic products average UK citizen throws
away in a lifetime
www.weeeman.org
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WEEE ManWaste from Electrical Electronic
Equipment
www.weeeman.org
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... the proliferation and disposal of computers
is a greenhouse concern...

• over 240kg fossil fuels used to make desktop
  computer, 10 x weight of computer itself

• 75 of a PCs total fossil fuel consumption
  across its life cycle has already happened before
  the computer is ever switched on

Computers and the Environment Kuehr Williams,
United Nations Universitywww.unu.edu/zef/publicat
ions-d/flyer.pdf
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...and creates demand for resources
According to United Nations University research,
each PC generates 240 kg C02, 22 kg chemicals,
uses 1,500 litres water
Since 1994 CRS has refurbished an average of
3,845 PCs a year, saving

• 9,600,000 kilograms of fossil fuels

• 880,000 kilograms of various chemicals

• 60,000,000 litres of water

Computers and the Environment Kuehr Williams,
United Nations Universitywww.unu.edu/zef/publicat
ions-d/flyer.pdf
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Zero Waste Climate Change Shifting Perception
seeing waste as materials
seeing materials as energy carriers
Image from www.worth1000.com
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Beyond Recycling
AVOID
Recycling is only the halfway point of the
journey towards being a zero waste society
Recycling?You Are Here!
DISPOSE
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USE LESS
AVOID
USE LESS
USE LESS
USE LESS
USELESS
DISPOSE