Bring out your dead PC this Saturday

Dan Warne
13 October 2006, 8:09 AM


Send to a friend Print

If you live in Melbourne and have an old PC collecting dust in the garage, Dell will take it off your hands for one day only - tomorrow - and process the materials using environmentally-safe methods.


oldpcs350.jpg

Dell is holding a free computer recycling day tomorrow at University of Melbourne.

If you've got an old PC that has been collecting dust in the garage, Dell will take it off your hands and process the materials using environmentally-safe methods.

Dell says up to three million computers a year are retired, with many of them finding their final resting place in council tips. But PCs contain many hazardous chemicals and heavy metals that can seriously pollute groundwater.

According to Dell, it is able to recover 97 per cent of the materials from PCs on average with the remaining three per cent going into landfill.

The equipment is disassembled and components recycled, for example: copper wire and polymer coating, circuit boards and copper, precious metal lead and other metals, unleaded glass, plastics where possible (and into things like fence posts and pallets), steel and other metals.
You can drop off up to three old hunk-o-junk PCs at University of Melbourne's Parkville Campus between 9am and 3pm tomorrow -- Saturday, October 14.

Dell is also accepting one monitor, printer, keyboard and mouse per PC for recycling.

Dell collected a staggering 75 tonnes of dead PCs at its previous recycling days in Sydney, Brisbane and Wellington (NZ). Perth residents will get a recycling day in November.
If you're not in Melbourne, you can still have your PC recycled, but you have to purchase a new Dell PC at the same time.

Dell says by the end of 2006, it will agree to take back any Dell-branded PC free of charge for recycling.

Dell issued the following facts about its previous recycling efforts:

  • Most of the PCs recycled are generic "beige box" PCs or other manufacturers who don't have recycling services.
  • The PCs people drop off typically date from the early 1990s, and 10 per cent were from the 70s and 80s. (Dell judged that most of the PCs had reached the end of their useful life.)
  • Some of the oldest systems recycled by Dell include a Commodore 64 (circa 1983), complete with manuals and cassette tape player, an early model IBM PC and a Amstrad 'luggable' PC.

There's more info at www.dell.com.au/recycle.


Post your comment



Comments

 RSS feed Email alert

Remi:

What would be the exact location of the recycling acceptance site? University of Melbourne is such a big area.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

¿Qué?:

This is a good idea, but there are other alternatives. You can give a working computer or any working computer parts to a local ComputerBank. ComputerBank is a voluntary organisation. They build computers and then provide them to families-in-need as well as community groups. You will find ComputerBank groups in Victoria and NSW.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Paul @ Dell:

Yes, finding ways (like Computerbank) to reuse relatively new and working PCs is a good idea -- Dell's day is aimed at recovering end-of-life PCs that would otherwise go into landfill.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Raindog:

If the Dell program is motivated solely by concern for landfill, why is a one machine limit imposed?

I don't think the Dell system is a bad thing, any efforts to re-use re-cycle are a benefit. But sadly, like the rest of the Dell user parchase system it is user hostile and inflexible. In a home situation data etc would have to be transferred before any older machine is retired, there is still going to be a dead one in the shed before long. One machine in a business situation is a drop in the ocean.

Good on Dell for having a go, but hardly a solution.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Pat:

Not having ago at the last user (I think its a great idea what Dell's doing), but surely you are aware that it would cost them money to recycle each computer?

We can only speculate why they did it at all (e.g. good PR for Dell, maybe trying to encourage a few people to go Dell in future, even genuine concern etc...)

Nevertheless, there would be a hard limit to goodwill from any large company.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Raindog:

Recycling, done properly can be profitable or at least break even, particularly when economies of scale are applied. Hence my comments about why the limits on number of units at the recycle days.
One of the biggest cost with recycling this stuff would be the cost of collection. At the recycle days, Dell would not have to foot that cost.

Call me cynical but It seems that you also suspect this is a PR exercise. Not that there is anything wrong with PR exercises, but I can't see this one being a runaway success.

If Dell were serious about wastage and recycling they could do well to take a look at some of the garbage that comes in the carton with each new Black Box. Idividually plastic wrapped OH&S guides and certificates of compliance that guarantee the device to be safe in both Canada & Norway. Maybe I'm just lucky but I've never had a life threatening risk from a keyboard, and don't see why all this nonsense couldn't be supplied on a single unwrapped paper document making it easier to drop into the recycle bin?

I did commend Dell on having a go, as it appears the recycling is a little more than making you feel good then shipping the job lot to the nearest landfill.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Dan Warne:

That's an excellent point Raindog... PC manufacturers should definitely look at cutting down the amount of unnecessary packaging. As a tech reviewer I can definitely attest to the ludicrous amount of unwrapping required to get simple products out of a box and put together... you end up with a full office rubbish bin of wrapping plastic, cable ties and (as you pointed out) compliance statements for other countries, bagged in plastic, often for small gadgets like a Skype phone or a new mouse.

Dell is certainly not the worst offender -- in fact its packaging seems reasonably sparing. But hopefully this will be the next stage in environmentally-friendly companies' PR campaigns.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Paul @ Dell:

Thanks for the feedback Raindog -- we limit the number of PCs we accept at these events because they're intended for individual consumers not businesses. In practice, it's not a hard and fast rule, and if you have four systems we wont turn you away ;-) but we dont want businesess, for example, to attempt to take advantage by dropping off trailer loads of equipment.

And I think you're right, generally, as I understand it, it's possible to break even when recycling things like newspapers, glass bottles and aluminuium cans -- but dismantling PCs is labour-intensive process (they remove and recycle even the plastic insulation on the wiring) and so, unfortunately, it costs more than the value of what's recycled. If there was money in recycling PCs, we wouldn't need free recycle days like these.

We've collected 80 tonnes of equipment from days like these in the last year in Australia and New Zealand and we recognise that they are not a long term solution but they do help us to raise awareness in the community of the reasons people should recycle unwanted PCs and the options available.

Dell launched its first recycling service in 2003 -- it's still the only service from ANY vendor available to consumers nationally. Last year we started to offer free recycling with any Dell purchase to individual customers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Later this year we'll extend that to other capital cities and, as Dan mentions above, introduce a scheme to take-back any Dell branded PCs from consumers.

We recovered more than 70 tonnes of equipment in Australia last year and we've announced plans to triple that in the next few years.

As you've probably guessed, we think we are really serious about sustainability, if you'd like to know more, take a look at www.dell.com/environment.

Cheers, Paul @ Dell

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (5 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Not signed in
anonymous user Anonymous user