What to Do With Old Computers?

After his 4 1/2-year stint with the Navy ended in 1991, David Campbell considered working for the Department of Defense as a weapons analyst. But today, the veteran employs his technical skills and environmental awareness to defend California from a different kind of high-tech threat: electronic junk.

“My main goal is to keep this stuff out of landfills,” Campbell said, pointing to a 10-foot stack of monochrome computer monitors at the Covina warehouse where he is manager of a computer recycling program run by Goodwill Industries.

As his workers unloaded a truck full of old computers, monitors and inkjet printers, Campbell said: “We’re getting choked with merchandise these days.”

Environmental officials hope California’s landfills won’t be choked by a flood of obsolete computers and the harmful chemicals hidden within them. They have been put on alert by the blistering pace at which technological innovation is dramatically shortening the useful lives of millions of personal computers.

In 1998 alone, about 21 million personal computers became obsolete in the United States, studies show. Of that number, only 11%--about 2.3 million--were recycled. And by 2004, it is estimated that 315 million more will become obsolete.

But what’s an owner to do when a computer is showing its age?

Most consumers, it seems, are clueless.

Most Computers Still Being Retained

About three-quarters of all computers ever bought in the United States are currently stored in warehouses, attics, basements, office closets and cupboards, experts say. The rest have met their end in municipal landfills or incinerators, according to the Chicago-based, nonprofit National Safety Council.

Under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations, it has been illegal for businesses throughout the country to dump computers in the trash, but Massachusetts recently became the first state to forbid individuals to dispose of computer monitors, TV sets and other glass picture tubes in landfills and incinerators.

The real targets of the law are cathode ray tubes, or CRTs, the technical name for the glowing screens used in computer monitors and televisions. The average tube contains 5 to 8 pounds of lead that can leach into the ground water under landfills or, if the tube is incinerated, get into the air.

Environmental hazards are also posed by toxic chemicals--cadmium, mercury and chromium--found on computer circuit boards, and by the presence of brominated flame retardants in computers’ plastic housing.

“It’s a huge environmental burden,” said Ted Smith, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, a grass-roots advocacy group that tracks the environmental hazards of the high-tech industry. “If we’re talking about 315 million computers, the amount of toxins is enormous.”

It is not clear how big a problem so-called e-waste is for California. But a Carnegie Mellon University study estimated that 2 million tons of scrap electronics goes into landfills nationwide each year. It also indicated that--unless recycling catches on--more than 150 million computers are headed for U.S. landfills by 2005.

California Agencies Try Persuasion

But California is not considering a ban similar to the one enacted in Massachusetts. Instead, environmental agencies are encouraging consumers to donate or recycle their unwanted computer equipment.

“People are not throwing them out. You would feel funny doing that,” said Mary Keil, an environmental specialist with the state Office of Solid Waste Management in San Francisco. “They are storing them for now, but sooner or later they are going to want to get rid of them.”

Mid-City resident Cathy Thomas didn’t know what to do with her 9-year-old Macintosh Performa 430. She had owned the computer since her college days, but with the recent purchase of her sleek and portable Macintosh iBook, she no longer needed the bulky desktop.

It collected dust in her apartment for nearly a month before she got her friend Matt to help her drop it off at a Goodwill store in West Los Angeles, along with two printers, an old pair of sneakers and a box of dishware.

“This probably would have ended up in the trash,” Matt said, pointing to one of the printers that had belonged to him.

Goodwill Industries is just one of a growing number of charitable groups that accept old computer equipment and refurbish it for resale or donate it to schools and nonprofit groups.

Since Goodwill started its computer recycling program in Los Angeles County two years ago, donations have streamed in from businesses, individuals, schools and hospitals.

The charity receives nearly 4,000 pieces of discarded computer equipment each week, about 85% of which it is able to fix and resell at its four computer retail stores. Computers are sold with warranties, and retail for between $50 for a basic 386 computer and $500 for a low-end Pentium II, complete with 56K modem, CD-ROM, sound card and speakers.

Of course, what’s available depends on what’s donated. The West Los Angeles Goodwill started receiving donations of laptop computers during the last days of the Y2K countdown. But that pool of donations dried up when the year rolled over without any glitches. “People are a little . . . smarter since the 2000 thing,” said the store’s computer sales representative, Michael Matti.

When electronic equipment is too old to be reused or is beyond repair, Goodwill disassembles the computers, salvages parts and sells reclaimed materials.

Disassembly is a very thorough process. Sound and video cards are inspected. Hard drives that don’t work are valued for their aluminum content. The copper is harvested from computer wires and cables. Monitors that don’t work are shipped to companies who recycle the glass tube and use smelting techniques to rid it of lead.

Computer recyclers recover and sell gold and other precious metals like copper and silver that are present in trace amounts on computer circuit boards. They’re lucky if they get 10 ounces of gold out of 2,000 pounds of boards.

The most common materials reclaimed are steel, plastic, aluminum and copper, which make up about 95% of the computer, according to the National Recycling Coalition.

“This is one of the few businesses where you actually add value to something by breaking it,” said Randy Lewis, general manager of All Tech Computer Recyclers. The company recycles 30 tons of donated electronic hardware each month at its 10,000-square-foot processing plant in Torrance.

“We take anything with a circuit board and a plug,” Lewis said; he started All Tech three years ago. “We’ve seen some pretty ugly junk come through here, too: monochrome monitors, 286 processors and some of those person-sized servers . . . big old ugly, heavy things.”

Not everything is recycled. Some of the computer scrap, including cathode ray tubes, is shipped as waste export to countries such as China and Taiwan, where it is either reused or disposed of.

Computer recyclers encounter the most frustration with the plastic casings. With no standardization of plastics in the computer industry, recyclers said they must invest a lot of labor sorting out the various kinds of plastics used by manufacturers. And the plastic has often been contaminated by computer labels, which makes it worthless.

“The plastics are a real big headache,” said Lewis. “There’s not a big market for them.”

The plastics are often ground up and reused, sometimes creatively. In Boston, an industrial company has enlisted the plastic in the battle to make its streets smoother; it is used as a pothole filler.

Waste management officials expect another wave of electronic trash as people buy newer, cheaper computers and purchase high-definition televisions in anticipation of the switch to digital transmission later this decade.

“Everybody does not need to have the best, newest, fastest,” said Chris Peck, spokesman for the California Integrated Waste Management Board, who gave consumers this advice: “Wait for it to blow up before you buy a new, high-definition one.”

Some cities are taking action. Culver City and Torrance will set up drop-off sites for e-waste collection as part of their April 22 Earth Day observances. And Los Angeles is developing a pilot electronic junk collection program that it hopes to get underway by the end of the year.

One idea is to establish collection sites for unwanted electronics at major retail stores. A similar program launched in 1997 at a Fry’s Electronics store in San Jose collected five tons of junk per week.

“It’s something that will have to be added to our program,” said Alfred Tong, program manager for the city’s Household Hazardous Waste and Used Oil Collection Program. “Unless we start planning now, it will be a major problem down the road.”

The California Integrated Waste Management Board and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works also have materials exchange programs that allow businesses and individuals to find markets for their unwanted goods.

Many computer manufacturers say they are designing cleaner products and are increasing the life of computers by making them easier to upgrade.

But some consumer groups are urging so-called “take it back” initiatives that would require computer manufacturers to take back their products after they become obsolete. They believe such steps would encourage recycling and toxic-free product design.

“Local municipalities will start to get tired of having to clean up the junk generated by manufacturers’ shortsightedness,” said Smith of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

“I wish they could do that for cars,” John Engman of the Computer Trade Industry Assn. said of the consumer initiatives. He said the association, which represents more than 8,000 computer hardware and software manufacturers and distributors, including IBM and Apple, has not yet discussed such take-back proposals. For now, the trade group is pushing donations for reuse or recycling.

“We have to think of how to get these devices in the hands of those that can’t afford [them],” said Engman, who is director of the association’s work force development program. “There are a lot of communities that could benefit from recycled products. We could kill a lot of birds with one stone.”

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Recycling Resources

Several organizations accept used computer equipment for recycling or reuse. Some telephone numbers and Web sites:

* Goodwill Industries: (888) 4-GOODWILL (to find closest donation center)

* Goodwill Computer Clearance Center: (626) 915-4433 (for donating more than two computers)

* All Tech Computer Recyclers: (877) PC-RECYCLE

* Salvation Army: (800) 95-TRUCK

* National Safety Council: https://www.nsc.org/ehc/epr2/recycler.htm (listings by state)

* California Materials Exchange: https://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/calmax

* Los Angeles County Materials Exchange Program: https://www.lacomax.com