London - Computer Aid International has released the first of a series of Special Reports on the theme of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the Environment. The report titled "why reuse is better than recycling", explains that while recycling is often the default management option of choice for unwanted ICTs, it is not necessarily the best one. Many still-functional ICTs enter the waste stream, and for these, reuse is by far the environmentally superior recovery option, this is before we consider the additional socio-economic benefits they could reap.

Key findings of the report include:

* ICTs are energy and materially intensive to produce, and contain substances that are hazardous, valuable or both. Keeping ICTs out of landfill makes resource and environmental and public health sense.

* High levels of product replacement of ICTs and the concentration of energy intensity in their production rather than use phase (80 and 20 percent, respectively) means that any activity that extends their life-such as reuse-should be prioritised.

* Reusing working computers is up to 20 times more energy efficient than recycling them. Also, reuse lowers ICT resource depletion costs far more than recycling. Thus, the waste hierarchy equally applies to unwanted ICTs as other wastes.

* The superior performance of reuse over recycling has been recognised in EU legislation. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive contains language that prioritises reuse, though a lack of specific reuse targets means that recycling often becomes the practical reality. More needs to be done in the EU and elsewhere to reap the many benefits of reuse.

Haley Bowcock, Computer Aid's Environmental Advocacy Officer who helped put the Special Report together, said, "Now is a more exciting time than ever to be talking about reuse, as the EU's Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is edging closer towards a specific reuse target. If approved, this would go along way to increasing levels of reuse across the community. We hope that this report convinces policy-makers in the EU and beyond of the need to maximise opportunities for reuse-such as through the introduction of legislated targets in their e-waste management systems".

The full report can be downloaded under computeraid.org.

Quelle: Computer Aid International

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