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25 Jun 04 - computers; eBay; procurement; DVDs; exchange; summer break
** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM **
-- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition
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Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive
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From Jim Lynch, CompuMentor, San Francisco, CA, following up on the 6/14/04
posting about the material use and other environmental impacts when a
computer chip is manufactured:
Eric D. Williams from United Nations University has recently come out with
more dramatic findings about the benefits of reusing computers -
essentially that adding a couple years of life to computers is 5 to 20 times
more energy efficient than even recycling over the computer's life cycle.
His findings are in a book called Computers and the Environment,
Understanding and Managing Their Impacts (Kluwer Press), and the article is
called "Environmental Impacts in the Production of PCs" (pages 67- 69).
He finds that the cost in materials for producing a computer and monitor is
immense, especially microprocessors. The average 53-pound desktop computer
and monitor require 530 pounds of fossil fuels, 50 pounds of chemicals and
3,330 pounds of water (due to the repeated rinsing necessary). This is
roughly the weight of a sport utility vehicle or 1.8 metric tons. Williams
also reports that it takes thousands of chemicals to make a computer. The
total energy used per year from owning a computer is roughly the same as for
a refrigerator. Most importantly, reselling or upgrading computers saves 5
to 20 times more energy than recycling over the computer's life cycle. It's
much better for the environment to use a computer if possible for an extra
two or three years than to recycle it and buy a new one every 3 to 4 years.
E-mail: jimlynch [AT] compumentor [DOT] org
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Excerpted from articles in the 6/17/04 Atlanta Business Chronicle and the
6/17/04 Wall Street Journal:
EBAY DROP-OFF STORES MAKE REUSE EVEN EASIER
People who want to sell their used (or new) goods on eBay, but don't have a
computer, or don't want to take the time to navigate eBay themselves, now
have another option: A number of new businesses offer a service where
people can drop off their goods, and the stores will sell the items for them
on eBay, the popular online auction service.
This concept got a huge boost in mid-June, when the company AuctionDrop Inc.
announced a deal with UPS (United Parcel Service) Stores that gives
customers of AuctionDrop access to 3,400 UPS Store locations across the
United States. Prior to the arrangement with UPS, AuctionDrop had only five
locations in the San Francisco Bay area.
Here's how the system works at AuctionDrop: The sellers bring their
unpacked items to AuctionDrop or any UPS Store, where it is packed and
shipped to eBay after sellers fill out a form containing their personal
information. Sellers are not charged anything for the service at this point.
AuctionDrop has a processing center that takes care of all the logistics,
including setting up the page on eBay to sell the item. When the item sells,
the seller gets a check in the mail after AuctionDrop takes a commission. If
an item does not sell, it is returned to the seller at no additional charge.
UPS has a pre-negotiated shipping price with AuctionDrop, said UPS
spokesperson Steve Holmes. "The benefit to UPS is the shipping revenue," he
said. "But to the UPS Store franchisees, they get shipping revenue and
packing revenue, plus it attracts more foot traffic to the stores."
Regional businesses around the nation that offer a similar e-Bay drop-off
service include QuikDrop, iSold It, NuMarkets and Post Net International.
Most of these drop-off stores, or "auction brokers," generally only take
items expected to get at least $50 on eBay. The drop-off stores take a hefty
commission - usually between 20 and 40 percent of what the item eventually
fetches on eBay - plus additional fees, in some cases.
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Excerpted from an article by Melita Marie Garza in the 6/20/04 Chicago
Tribune:
HEALTHCARE FIRMS PUSH TO HEAL THEIR BUILDINGS
In 2002, Kaiser Permanente, the country's largest non-profit health-care
system, issued an unusual mandate to a longtime supplier: Create a quality
carpet without the controversial chemical polyvinyl chloride (PVC), or
forget about winning any more contracts. "We don't want products that
contain carcinogens, mutagens - chemicals that cause a mutation of the genes
- or reproductive toxins," said Kathy Gerwig, Kaiser Permanente's director
of environmental stewardship. Now a carpet manufacturer, Dalton, Ga.-based
Tandus Group Inc., said that it had met the challenge.
Tandus just announced it has been awarded a $5 million-a-year contract to
cover floors in most of the 20 new hospitals - with 30 million square feet
of floor space -that Kaiser Permanente says it will build in the next
decade.
Health and environmental concerns increasingly raised by the health-care
industry, which are spurring development of healthier equipment and
furnishings, are likely to have a ripple effect on consumers and the
workplace as a whole. "The health-care market is starting to educate other
markets about the long-term impact of a wide variety of products on people's
health," said Jamie Harvie, who works with Health Care Without Harm, a
coalition of 437 organizations in 52 countries.
Hospital purchasing organizations, including Consorta Inc. and Premier Inc.,
have pledged to purchase hospital equipment and supplies free of mercury, if
a substitute was available, by the end of 2004. "It's worked - manufacturers
are phasing out these products," said Gina Pugliese, vice president of
Premier's Safety Institute in Oak Brook, Illinois. The market power of the
purchasing groups is extensive, with Consorta ordering about $3.3 billion
worth of products a year on behalf of 475 acute-care hospitals nationwide.
Last year, Premier bought $17 billion in supplies for the roughly 1,500
hospitals it serves. Now the purchasing organizations want to reduce the use
of harmful materials in computers, such as certain flame retardants that
have been found to cause neurological damage in mice.
Jean Livingston, Consorta's director of organizational effectiveness, said
that imposing higher environmental standards can raise the threat of higher
costs. "That's the fallback for manufacturers - they will always say: `Sure
we'll do this, but it will cost more,'" Livingston said . But she added, "We
need to really start pushing on this cost issue, because people aren't
taking into consideration the true costs of these potentially toxic
materials, especially when they are so widespread - as they are in
computers." Apple Computer Inc. already is replacing the plastic exterior
casings on its laptop computers with metal, negating the need for a flame
retardant.
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Link to information on a Green Electronics Procurement Workshop in
Indianapolis 8/17/04 (forwarded by Julie Rhodes):
http://www.indianarecycling.org/workshop.html
The workshop is sponsored
by the Indiana Recycling Coalition, with the help of a grant from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5.
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Excerpted from a 4/16/04 article by Richard Shim and Matt Loney on the ZDNet
UK technology news website (forwarded by Don Van Dyke):
COMING SOON: DVDS AND CDS MADE FROM ORGANIC MATERIALS
Sony has announced it is developing a DVD disc made from paper that will
hold 25GB (gigabytes) of data. Meanwhile, Sanyo is looking to develop a
rewriteable version of its new corn-based CD.
Sony, working with Toppan Printing, have been working for about a year on
printing data onto discs made mostly of paper, using the new Blu-ray Disc
technology. The companies are aiming to produce lower-cost discs and expand
the use of the technology. The Blu-ray Disc format uses blue laser light and
is considered a successor to today's red-laser DVD drives. Blu-ray discs can
store more than five times the capacity of current DVDs. Blu-ray disc drives
are just starting to hit the market. Sony introduced a Blu-ray disc drive in
Japan last year.
The paper discs can add a level of security in some cases. "Since a paper
disc can be cut by scissors easily, it is simple to preserve data security
when disposing of the disc," Hideaki Kawai, managing director of Toppan
Printing, said in a statement.
Toppan and Sony said they plan to develop the disc for practical use. Other
companies have already made headway in creating discs using organic
materials. Sanyo's MildDisc, which launched in early April, is made from
polyactic acid derived from corn kernels. Although the disc is currently
only available as a CD, Sanyo said it is working on a recordable version.
This method, which has been researched over the past few years by Sanyo, has
been developed to replace the polycarbonate used in most discs today.
Polycarbonate discs need intense heat to incinerate them, and the chemicals
released during this process contribute to air pollution. In addition, they
are not biodegradable.
Sanyo's MildDisc can be broken down into water and carbon dioxide by
microorganisms in the ground, according to Sanyo. The company says that no
harmful dioxins are released during incineration, which can be achieved at
much lower temperatures than for polycarbonate discs. One ear of corn can
produce ten discs, according to Sanyo. The MildDisc currently costs about
three times as much as traditional CDs. As of April, it was not yet
available directly to consumers.
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Link to the website for Throwplace.com, a new national online exchange
service for reusable items (forwarded by Jesse White):
http://www.throwplace.com
(Note from Tom: Although it's unclear to me from their website who is
operating this exchange, it appears to be a for-profit business.)
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From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the
National Waste Prevention Coalition:
SUMMER BREAK FOR FORUM
I will be out of the office for three weeks, June 28-July 19, so there will
be no Forum during that time. Hope you're all having a great summer!
- end -
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