Give us your tired computers

Jan 27th 2005 
From The Economist print edition


A new plan to recycle old PCs may forestall regulation

THE computer industry is built on the assumption that PCs and electrical 
devices are replaced every few years. It is a strategy that leaves tons of 
electronic junk in its wake. Over 130,000 PCs are replaced every day in America 
alone, and only a tenth or so are recycled. Ingredients such as cadmium, mercury 
and lead can do terrible things to people and places. In Europe, such e-waste is 
the fastest growing type of refuse, accounting for 8% of all municipal 
rubbish. 
Regulators have taken note. In California, legislation to levy a surcharge on 
computer sales to defray recycling costs took effect this month. (A European 
Union directive in 2003 requires equipment-makers to recycle, but it has not 
yet been implemented in national laws.) Manufacturers such as IBM, Dell and HP 
have been trying to deflect further legislation by introducing their own 
recycling programmes. But they have had limited success—partly because they tend to 
charge for recycling unwanted machines. Apple's price for taking back one of 
its computers in America is $30. 
Now eBay, the world's leading online auction business, has come up with an 
innovative way to encourage people to sell, donate or recycle their old machines 
over the internet. A web-based program “reads” the redundant computer's 
components and gives its specifications (like its memory and processor speed). 
Owners can then ascertain the value of their old PC, put it up for sale and get a 
special mailing kit to simplify shipping. The site also makes it easy to 
donate a PC to charity or get it to a nearby recycler. 
The scheme is no altruistic act of corporate social responsibility. It began 
as an attempt by Patrick Jabal, manager of the site's computer and networking 
category (which does $2.5 billion-worth of transactions a year), to drum up 
more business.
Watching people's buying and selling patterns on eBay's site, Mr Jabal, an 
entrepreneur with an MBA from Harvard Business School, noticed an unmet demand 
for cheap, old PCs. Though they were plentiful in the closets of eBay users, 
listing and selling them was problematic. So, in order to increase their supply 
on the site, he set out to overcome the difficulties that users had—often no 
more than an inability to remember the vital statistics of the machine they had 
been using. 
Then he stumbled on the issue of waste and realised that the company could do 
even more. “It was a way to meet a business objective, help the environment, 
and help confused consumers,” he says. It may also turn out to be a clever 
market-based way to avoid more regulation. 

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