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Going green? Ask questions before buying electronics

From CBC.ca
By Scott Valentine
Manufacturers are putting more emphasis on building energy-efficient compute
rs for both individuals and businesses, as well as designing equipment so that i
t's easier to dismantle and recycle. (AP)
If you're like the average consumer, when you think of the "green" movement and
what you can do to participate it's probably blue bins, composting and fuel effi
ciency that spring to mind. But you might be surprised at the number of ways Can
adian consumers and businesses can cut both their energy consumption and "e-wast
e," the environmental refuse related to technology and electronics.
It's surprising how much of a computer and its related peripheral gear can actua
lly be recycled: the monitor, mouse, keyboard, printer, and much of the wiring a
nd casing. Plus, there are the associated routers, modems, removable hard drives
... the list of recyclable computer equipment is a long one.
And all this old gear doesn't just create an enormous trash pile if it's not ret
ired properly castoff electronics can contain nasty substances that can harm peo
ple and the environment. A typical computer monitor may contain more than six pe
r cent lead by weight, for example.
Even though unwanted electronics can be recycled, the problem is that they often
aren't.
Some of the waste goes straight into local landfills. Some is exported to other
nations that have lax environmental regulations. The United States Environmental
Protection Agency says that 61 per cent of U.S. e-waste is sent to foreign coun
tries, where it is burned by poorly paid labourers who inhale toxic fumes in the
process. According to the Basel Action Network, a non-profit agency dedicated t
o bringing countries in line with the Basel Convention, Canada and the U.S. are
the only developed countries in the world that have failed to control export of
hazardous electronic waste to developing countries.
Canada is well behind places such as the EU when it comes to e-waste management.
There's no compelling regulation in Canada that penalizes manufacturers and dis
tributors of e-waste for failing to adopt a cradle-to-grave management strategy
for their products, and little incentive provided to private entrepreneurs who w
ant to make a living out of recycling your old computer parts.
Though some provinces and regions, such as Alberta and more recently Saskatchewa
n, have e-waste policies in place, it's not mandatory for them to do so. And whi
le Ontario considers a government panel recommendation to impose an e-waste levy
, many of its municipalities have already begun to turn to private contractors t
o manage their IT junk.
"You have individual municipalities negotiating e-waste management contracts wit
h private contractors," says Mike Nagy, the Green party's shadow cabinet critic
for the environment and a Guelph Centre candidate. He is among those pushing for
a cohesive e-waste disposal strategy for the country.
Nagy think there's a good argument to be made for competition among private e-wa
ste management companies, but worries about a lack of government support and the
 repercussions of quick-fix exporting measures. "We'd be doing a lot of people a
favour by investing in an e-waste co-payment program that creates jobs locally
and stops sending our old parts to poor nations where cheap labour burns them do
wn in unsafe conditions."
Dollars and sense
Due to gaps in Canada's e-waste management strategy, consumers and private busin
ess are forced to pick up the slack in the reduce-reuse-recycle chain.
In the absence of government disposal regulations, for example, people can use t
heir buying power to push manufacturers to adopt greener approaches to their pro
ducts. This can be as simple as asking questions before buying look for eco-labe
ls on products that indicate how they were made and what parts can be recycled,
and ask about a manufacturer's e-waste management programs.
Some manufacturers are trying to address the problem and some retailers already
have dismantle-and-dispose programs in place that will take your old computer of
f your hands, break it down to its essential parts, reuse or recycle whatever is
possible and safely dispose of the rest. Apple recycled about 17 million tonnes
of e-waste in 2007, The Source has an e-waste program, and Dell Canada has part
nered with the National Recycling Coalition to help shape the future of e-waste
disposal in Canada. The Rogers Phones-for-Food program donates revenue from its
recycling program to food banks, and cellphones bought at Rogers and Fido stores
come with postage-paid recycling envelopes.
Politicians from the left to the right have started discussing the role of techn
ology as a catalyst for environmental awareness and sustainability. Influential
lobby groups, such as the David Suzuki Foundation, have also weighed in. Suzuki
was the keynote speaker at the You, Me and Green IT conference held in Toronto o
n April 9 and 10.
"Every corporation is trying to green themselves," Suzuki told CBCnews.ca via e-
mail. "I'm busy trying to say I want to get to where being green isn't a braggin
g issue because it's the only way of doing things."
Then there's how we use electronic stuff. For example, something as simple as se
tting your computer to go into "Sleep" mode rather than displaying a screen save
r can dramatically reduce your computer's daily energy consumption and extend th
e useful life of your equipment. When you're not using a computer or peripheral,
turn it off.
Companies can also play a role with their buying decisions. Both small and large
businesses can reduce IT costs by adopting new technologies such as "virtualiza
tion," a low-intensity, energy-saving way of managing big computer networks. Com
panies such as Toronto-based Platespin (recently sold to Novell) and Vancouver's
Strangeloop Networks have leapt into the green IT space with business solutions
that help reduce the number of servers and the energy it takes to run things su
ch as power-hungry Web 2.0 applications.
That computer at your fingertips is getting more environmentally friendly, too.
Manufacturers are building more energy-efficient machines for both individuals a
nd businesses, as well as designing equipment so that it's easier to dismantle a
nd recycle. Again, it pays to ask some questions before you buy.
According to its technical specifications, for example, Apple's thin new MacBook
Air consumes less power than any other Mac to date, features a mercury-free LCD
display, PVC-free internal cabling and is encased in a recycling-friendly alumi
num enclosure. Even Greenpeace, which traditionally reviles all things corporate
, has said publicly that the Air is an important step in the right direction for
 the greening of IT.
And cellphone maker Nokia now provides "Eco Declarations" for its products, givi
ng people information such as the energy efficiency and materials used in a hand
set.
Youth's place in the eco-equation
Making smart buying decisions is important, because when all is said and done, t
he future of Canada's e-waste may have less to do with federal policy or corpora
te responsibility than it does with personal habits particularly those of the po
werful new youth consumer demographic.
Canada's youth have been raised with an awareness of things such as recycling, g
lobal warming and alternative fuels that far exceeds the education of previous g
enerations, and they are also among the biggest consumers of IT products and ser
vices on the planet. That means that, despite their heightened environmental awa
reness, young consumers are also among the biggest producers of e-waste.
"Young people consume a lot of products," Nagy says, "... but for the most part,
they're not properly disposed of because we have no e-waste program in Canada."
While the hand-held and console-based gaming, personal digital music player and
mobile phone markets are not exclusive to young people, their sales are certainl
y heavily weighted in the youth demographic. Draw a circle around 10- to 29-year
-olds in Canada and you've captured about 25 per cent of the population, but as
much as half of the spending in Canada's consumer electronics market, according
to researchers such as Forrester.
These are must-have products for many young people, and they're also products th
at tend to become obsolete quickly. As today's tech-savvy youth get older, the c
hallenge of managing e-waste is only going to get bigger unless there's push to
change how electronics products are made and marketed.
"It's unfortunate," says the Green party's Nagy. "I was at a discussion with som
e young people the other day and we were talking about audio headphones, how you
buy the main item [the player] and that's good quality, but you pay $30 for hea
dphones that last two months."
In Suzuki's mind, environmental consciousness will really take hold in Canada on
ly when "thinking green" moves beyond popular consumer sentiment, and extends th
rough business IT and otherwise and beyond the realm of political rhetoric. "In
the ideal scenario, all parties will be green."