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The Darker Side of Computer Recycling

Posted by timothy on from the you've-got-poison dept.

Makarand writes "We all know that with electronics it is very difficult to be green. We leave our computer waste in the recyle bin lest dangerous chemicals like lead and mercury seep into our landfills. The more dedicated environmentalists make a trip to the local recyling center where they may be asked around to pay around $15-$30 to recycle their old PCs. But guess what -- these 'recyclers' merely ship 50-80% of this stuff overseas. The Mercury News has a report on this ugly side of the PC industry which merely exports the recycling problems instead of solving them."

15 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. I Have But One Word for Computer Recycling: by cliffy2000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    eBay.

  2. A friend of mine from China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    has a cousin who has some unpleasant health problems from living in a contaminated area where they do a lot of CPU recycling. It's a real disaster -- her cousin could tell you some stories, including the time that she found a piece of circuit board in her dinnertime meal (!).

    1. Re:A friend of mine from China by user32.ExitWindowsEx · · Score: 5, Funny

      She wasn't having a bag of chips, was she? /me ducks.

      --
      "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
    2. Re:A friend of mine from China by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah right, your story is complete BS.

      It makes no sense .. how can a peice of circuit board make it into her meal?

      Many ways. For example, it could be carried by a swallow.

  3. Basement by isorox · · Score: 5, Funny

    /me turns head and looks at pile of old cases, containing semi-working bits and bobs.

    $30 a piece? Thats more then it'd cost to send them to a random address with no return address on.

    MPAA anyone?

  4. What's even scarier... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is how China is using the computers we ship over there!

    It turns out they have a huge cyborg program in the works, and are literally turning their excess population in human/computer hybrids! They saw they Borg on Star Trek and were apparently quite impressed with their efficiency. Watch out! The Chinese Borg Army will be coming very soon!

    1. Re:What's even scarier... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I am 7 of 8.999932. You will be assimilated. Resistance is A Fatal Exception has occurred at 0000:00000000 in win.exe. The current application will be terminated.

      * Press any key to terminate the current application.
      * Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer. You will lose any unsaved information in all applications.

      Press any key to continue _

  5. what a great idea... by Quasar1999 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Speaking of shipping problems somewhere else... can we ship the RIAA execs there too?

    --

    ---
    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
    1. Re:what a great idea... by mythr · · Score: 2, Funny

      Speaking of shipping problems somewhere else... can we ship the RIAA execs there too?

      That's been considered. Unfortunately, it would be a violation of the Geneva Convention, and as such, we as a country would be guilty of war crimes. ;)

  6. Mercury News! by taliver · · Score: 2, Funny

    How ironic is that?

    --

    I demand a million helicopters and a DOLLAR!

  7. Recycle PC's? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, we recycle PC's sir! *Takes old 486 DX2, reformats, slaps win 3.1x back on it, and slaps "$39.99 starter computer!" on it.*

  8. One Big Freaking Missile by Flamesplash · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've always said we should just pack our garbage into a missile and fire it at the sun, and it seems like an even better solution now.

    Some may say that the problems of the missile exploding and reigning fire and computers upon people is bad, but just think about it. If that thing explodes over your neighborhood. BAM! Computers for everone on the block.

    --
    "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
  9. e-waste?? by the_real_tigga · · Score: 2, Funny

    I must be dreaming.

    The person responsible for that word should be electrocuted right now.

    Oh well, at least I know how to call that stuff in the recycle bin on my desktop.

    --
    my .sig is better than yours.
  10. More irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The editor of that paper's favorite writer is Hg Wells

  11. If you ever sold one... by NetDanzr · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...chances are I was the buyer. I'm becoming like NASA: buying old hardware in order to be able to run MS-DOS 20 years from now.