Technology clean-up

A community recycling event was held in Canberra on 17 October. The event, run by Dell and the Australia National University (ANU), invited Canberra residents to deposit computers, monitors and most IT accessories of any brand to its recycling drop off point at ANU.

Dell has been proactive in responding to the challenge of recycling electronics waste and has collected over 30 tonnes of equipment in similar events across Australia and New Zealand in the past three years.

“It’s vital our sector leads national IT recycling efforts and provides a free, convenient and responsible service, including an auditing service, to ensure accountability in ethical recycling. We believe producers should be responsible for the products they put into the market throughout the lifespan of those products - all unbranded producers must declare who they are," said Dell State Manager for ACT Richard Jeremiah.

“Dell designs its products with the environment in mind, with focus on energy efficiency, eliminating or reducing the use of environmentally sensitive materials, designing products to use fewer materials and improving recyclability,” said Jeremiah.

Interesting E-Day facts

The equipment recovered has generally reached the end of its useful life. At the Sydney event, for example, three-quarters of the computers gathered dated from the 1990s or earlier and, of that, 10% were from the 1970s and 1980s.

Some of the oldest systems recovered by Dell to date include a Commodore64 (circa 1983), complete with manuals and cassette tape player, an early model IBM PC and a Amstrad luggable PC.

The equipment is disassembled and the 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); and steel and other metals.