E-Cycling Made Easier  
BY IVAN BERGER  
WE ALL HAVE A STAKE in protecting the environment, and that includes  
producers, users, and recyclers of electronic equipment. Governments around the  
world are pressuring both users and producers into environmental virtue through  
regulations, mandates, and directives. But a new program, based on a new IEEE  
standard, aims to entice rather than coerce. 
IEEE Std. 1680 will make it easier to recycle  the tons of outdated computer 
equipment that ends up at waste facilities such as  this one in Bordeaux, 
France. 
IEEE Std. 1680 was announced in May at the IEEE’s International Symposium on  
Electronics and the Environment, an event attended by recyclers and computer  
manufacturers as well as engineers. The “Standard for Environmental 
Assessment  of Personal Computer Products” is the IEEE’s first environmental standard 
and  the first U.S. national standard on computer recycling. The Green 
Electronics  Council (GEC) is listing products that comply with the standard at 
_http://www.epeat.net_ (http://www.epeat.net/) . Compliance is  voluntary. 
Most provisions of the standard, and the approach of listing environmentally  
compliant products, are potentially applicable to all areas of electronics. 
But  for now, the standard covers only computers and monitors, which accounted 
for  about 2.79 million tons—out of a total of 236.1 million tons of 
electronic  waste—in the United States alone in 2003, the last year for which the U.S.  
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has complete figures. 
As advancing computer designs render fairly young machines obsolete, and  

multiple-computer households become more common, a greater number of  computers—
many still functional but obsolescent—will be disposed of. Today, a  little 
more than 10 percent of such discarded hardware is recycled; the rest  gets 
buried in landfills, exported, incinerated, or just left to clutter users’  
storage space. The new standard aims to extend computers’ useful life, and make  
them easier to recycle, in ways every stakeholder should be able to accept. 
TOUGH NUTS TO CRACK Today’s computers are not easy to recycle. Many  are 
difficult to take apart. Disassembled, they’re a hodgepodge of materials:  some 
valuable, some hazardous, some that can be recycled and some that can’t,  often 
mixed together. And recyclers often have no clear indication of which  
materials are which. 
Until recently, computer makers have had little reason to consider such  
points, and buyers had no way of knowing how “green” their prospective purchases  
were. Purchasers who most need to know are governments and other 
institutions,  which are the major buyers—and scrappers—of computer gear. According to 
the EPA,  about 10 000 computers owned by the U.S. government alone join the 
waste stream  every week. 
“Thirteen federal agencies have signed the EPA’s Federal Electronics  
Challenge, a pledge to buy greener electronic products, reduce the impact of  their 
use, and dispose of obsolete electronics in an environmentally safe way,”  
says Holly Elwood of the EPA, co-chair of the IEEE committee that developed IEEE  
Std. 1680. Many private firms have similar policies. 
“Those agencies [which include the Departments of Defense, Justice, Energy,  
and Transportation] account for 
84 percent of the federal IT budget—and that 
 budget amounts to about 7 percent of the world’s IT budget,” Elwood says. 
By providing a series of green product benchmarks along with product ratings, 
 IEEE Std. 1680 and the GEC aim to give purchasers the knowledge they need.  
Computer makers that want to reach environmentally aware buyers might now 
choose  to produce greener products. 
That’s different from motivation by mandate, the approach that has prevailed  
around the world. In Europe, for example, a Restriction of Hazardous 
Substances  (RoHS) directive limits the use of lead, cadmium, mercury, and other toxic 
 substances in new electronic equipment sold after June 2006 (IEEE Std. 1680  
requires RoHS compliance). A European directive on waste electrical and  
electronic equipment mandates that, as of 2008, manufacturers take back products  
for free and recycle at least 65 percent of the products’ average weight. 
Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have electronics take-back regulations. China, 
 which has outlawed the import of electronics waste containing toxic 
materials,  is considering similar legislation. In the United States, a state-by-state 
 patchwork of electronics recycling laws is emerging; at least 10 states are  
considering or have passed electronics recycling laws, an approach that 
almost  guarantees inconsistency. 
REWARDING GUIDELINES In 2002, a nonprofit environmental group, the  Zero 
Waste Alliance (_http://www.zerowaste.org_ (http://www.zerowaste.org/) ), proposed 
a  different model to the EPA: “Rather than coming up with a standard and 
trying to  stuff it down people’s throats,” says IEEE Member Larry Chalfan, 
executive  director of the alliance and co-chair of the IEEE P1680 Working Group, “
we  should identify what the market really wants and help manufacturers 
understand  it.  That will help purchasers get what they need and reward  
manufacturers for developing it, through market access and visibility.” That  strategy, 
Elwood adds, should “get environmentally preferable products into the  
marketplace.” 
More stringent recycling guidelines would  reduce the amount of time it takes 
for electronic equipment, such as this  computer, to become obsolete. 
With EPA funding, Chalfan says, “we pulled together major procurement folks,  
as well as recyclers, academics, and so forth, to work out the elements of 
this  [approach]. The development teams also included people from the 
governments of  four states working on recycling laws. It was a chance to harmonize the  
laws.” 
Working out the details, and shaping them into a standard that met IEEE and  
American National Standards Institute requirements, took three years. “The 
IEEE  process ensures that the standard has been developed in a very open and 
public  way,” adds Reggie Caudill of the IEEE Computer Society, who is chair of 
the  IEEE’s Technical Committee on Electronics and the Environment. “The 
process  requires that no single interest group hold the majority role, and that 
all  interested stakeholders take part.” 
Since mid-July, buyers have been able to assess the "greenness" of  
prospective computer purchases by checking them against the product registry at  
_http://www.epeat.net_ (http://www.epeat.net/) . At the top of the  Electronic 
Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) ratings chart—and given  so-called “
gold” status—are products that meet all 23 of IEEE Std. 1680’s  required 
criteria plus at least 75 percent of the standard’s 28 optional ones.  Next comes 
a silver rating for products that meet the required criteria and at  least 
half the optional ones. Those that meet the required criteria and fewer  than 
half the optional ones get a bronze rating. But the rating system need not  
remain static. 
“EPEAT has a built-in mechanism to escalate the system,” says Jeff Omelchuk, 
 EPEAT’s program manager and director of the GEC. “As the industry moves 
forward,  purchasers’ expectations will continue to grow. Although there is no 
platinum  level, there someday could be.” 
The criteria mostly covers equipment design and construction. Besides RoHS  
compliance, manufacturers must at least report—and preferably reduce—the 
amount  of mercury used in display-panel light sources. Other materials such as  
hexavalent chromium and certain flame retardants should also be eliminated or at 
 least reduced to levels far below those allowed under RoHS and other 
European  directives. IEEE Std. 1680 also covers the use of recyclable plastics such 
as  those made from plant sugars and oils rather than petrochemicals. 
Only reusable or recyclable materials should be used. Equipment should be  
built to simplify recycling—with enclosures, as well as circuit boards and  
components containing hazardous materials, easily removable. The manufacturer  
should clearly identify materials that are hazardous or require special  
handling, and it should label plastics with their international  resin-identification 
codes. The larger parts of enclosures should be composed of  only one type of 
plastic, and metal inserts molded or glued into plastic should  be easy to 
remove. Paints and coatings incompatible with recycling or reuse  should not be 
used. 
To prolong service life, products must carry extendable warranties or service 
 agreements, and be upgradable with common tools. They also should comply 
with  Energy Star power consumption requirements in effect or soon to be in 
effect at  the time of certification. 
Manufacturers should provide take-back service for the products and their  
rechargeable batteries, and recycling organizations should be audited for  
compliance. Makers of certified products must demonstrate an environmental  policy 
consistent with the International Standards Organization 14001 standard  and 
meet certain reporting requirements, with optional third-party verification  of 
environmental management systems. 
Producing EPEAT-compliant products will initially add to design and  
construction costs but, Elwood says, standards should help make green  construction 
commonplace. “For most manufacturers, it doesn’t make sense to run  a bunch of 
processes when making similar products,” she says. As computer makers  change 
their products and processes for the institutional market, individual  
consumers are likely to wind up with more eco-friendly computers as  well.

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