1

"... concern is growing globally about how to manage the volumes of ICT (information and communication technologies) equipment. These products historically have relatively short life spans, and end-of-life management is an important tool towards minimizing the volume of products being sent to landfills. Other options, such as reusing, remanufacturing, and recycling, exist and need to be promoted. (p.17)

ICT products, especially computers, create extensive environmental damage in numerous forms throughout their life cycles. There are large uses and management of toxic substances needed to produce electronic products and their components; the batteries and electricity needed to power them over their rapidly obsolescent lives also cause environmental impacts. A trend towards even smaller, harder-ro-recycle products will only intensify the environmental problems." (p.37)

Kluwer Academic Publishers - Computers in the Environment: Understanding and Managing Their Impacts (2003)

2

"A preliminary report on the results of recent toxicity testing on laptop computers and liquid crystal display (LCD) desktop computer monitors indicate that these devices contain hazardous levels of copper and lead."

California Department of Toxic Substances Control - SB20 Testing Results for LCD Monitors and Laptop Computers (prelininary fact sheet March, 2004) or the full final report (December, 2004)

3

California's Airborne Toxic Control Measure (ATCM) for Emissions of Toxic Metals from Non-ferrous Metal Melting (Metal Melting ATCM) adopted in 1993 regulates emissions from facilities that melt certain metals including lead, copper, zinc, cadmium, aluminum, and their alloys.

"ARB staff evaluated the current control requirements and exemption levels contained in the Metal Melting ATCM and found that these requirements were adequate to protect public health, particularly infants and children, and the emissions from these facilites would not pose a significant cancer or non-cancer health risk. Therefore, no revisions to the existing Metal Melting ATCM are recommended at this time."

California Air Resources Board - Senate Bill 25 (Children's Environmental Health) Required Review of Non-ferrous Metal Melting Airborne Toxic Control Measure for Lead Effects (April, 2004)

"Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are common fire retardants that have been used in various foams and electronics applications. Recently, there have been increasing concerns about the safety of exposure to these chemicals....there are significant structural similarities between PBDEs and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are known to exert adverse health impacts.

"The results of this research demonstrated methods for collecting and analyzing air samples with a great degree of sensitivity for PBDEs in indoor and near-source ambient air. The results also suggest that the impacts of the electronics recycling and automotive shredding operations on near-source downwind concentrations could be measured and compared with upwind concentrations. These near-source results and the results from the indoor monitoring at the electronics recycling facility also point to the need to further evaluate the health effects from exposure to PBDEs."

Califonia Air Resources Board - Near-Source Ambient Air Monitoring of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (October 2005)

4

California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has determined that lead, among other toxic air contaminants, should be included within its Prioritization of Toxic Air Contaminants - Children's Environmental Health Protection Act. In this final report, OEHHA describes a variety of health related issues associated with this pollutant.

OEHHA - Prioritization of Toxic Air Contaminants - Children's Environmental Health Protection Act - Final Report (October, 2001)

5

"Why Prevent Electronics Waste? "Over 20 million personal computers became obsolete in 1998. Only 13 percent were reused or recycled. Many municipalities are facing the dilemma of what to do with growing amounts of retired electronics. Rapid changes in computer technology and the emergence of new electronic gadgets exacerbate the problem. There are hazardous materials, such as lead, mercury, and hexavalent chromium, in circuit boards, batteries, and color cathode ray tubes (CRTs). Televisions and CRT monitors contain four pounds of lead, on average (the exact amount depends on size and make). Mercury from electronics has been cited as a leading source of mercury in municipal waste. In addition, brominated flame retardants are commonly added to plastics used in electronics. If improperly handled, these toxics can be released into the environment through incinerator ash or landfill leachate."

U.S. EPA - Electronics: A New Opportunity for Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling (June, 2001) (http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/elec_fs.pdf) - Site expired 

6

"Each year in California hundreds of thousands of computers, monitors, copiers, fax machines, printers, televisions, and other electronic items become "obsolete" in the eyes of consumers. Rapid advances in technology and an expanding demand for new features accelerate the generation of "old" electronic equipment ("e-waste"). The result is a growing challenge for businesses, residents, and local governments as they search for ways to reuse, recycle, or properly dispose of this equipment."

California Integrated Waste Management Board - Electronic Product Management (updated periodically)

7

"Why focus on computers? While it is well known that the high-tech revolution has radically transformed late 20th century civilization, it is less well known that high tech development also harms people's health as well as the environment that sustains all life. The dark side of high technology reveals polluted drinking water and birth defects, waste discharges that harm fish and wildlife and high rates of miscarriages and cancer clusters among workers. The high tech electronics industry uses vast amounts of dangerous chemicals and significantly depletes natural resources to fuel its global expansion and rapidly changing product lines. There are few other products for which the sum of the environmental impacts of raw material extraction, industrial refining and production, use and disposal is so extensive."

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition - Why Focus on Computers? (Updated periodically)

8

"Work-related cancers and toxic emissions have eroded the high-tech industry's clean reputation. New European Union rules banning heavy metals and requiring manufactureres to take back discarded computers could set a new global standard."

Yes - High Tech Goes Green (Spring, 2003)

B.

Recycling old computers and other electronic waste

There is no shortage of websites with an interest in this subject. Here is a sampling.

1

The U.S EPA is much involved in the recycling of computers as it notes an estimated 7% of all computer purchases are done by the U.S. government. A December 29, 2004 news brief, noted that:

"An estimated 10,000 machines per week are disposed of according to the EPA. EPA has awarded its first contracts to help all federal agencies in the environmentally responsible disposal of computers and other used electronic equipment. Called Government Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) for Recycling Electronics and Asset Disposition (READ) services, they provide federal agencies with a dependable method of properly recycling and disposing of excess or obsolete electronic equipment". For more information on the READ program . (Updated periodically)

U.S. EPA's Electronics: A new Opportunity for Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling (June, 2001) is a good place to start in studying this issue. EPA's definitive document on "Electronics Reuse and Recycling" appears to be its October 2000 WasteWise Update (October, 2000). There is much good information in this easy-read document including a large list of major recycling strategies with helpful descriptions of their website contents. There are even links to free computers on the Web.

EPA is working to increase the number of consumer electronic devices collected and safely recycled in the United States under a program called "Plug-In To eCycling." Plug-In is one component of EPA's Resource Conservation Challenge, a national effort to find flexible, yet more protective ways to conserve our valuable resources.

2

The California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) is also involved with the disposition of computers. Please view CIWMB's website on electronics (Updated periodically) including its own Electronic Product Management Directory (Updated continuously).

3

In Carnegie Mellon University's 1997 (updated into a case study in August 1999 ) study, we are told that "A widely cited 1991 study predicted that nearly 150 million personal computers (PCs) would be sent to landfills by 2005. Taking into consideration newer end-of-life disposition options now available, the general premise of the original study is reconsidered. Many fewer computers are being sent to landfills, as many more are being recycled as markets for used computers and electronic equipment develop. Many are still being stored, despite the unprofitable nature of storage. The updated model suggests that nearly 150 million computers will be recycled in 2005 - the same number initially predicted to be landfilled. Instead, we predict that only 55 million will be landfilled. In addition, the equivalent of 15 million PCs will be landfilled from the unused portions of the 150 million recycled computers. In essence, the computers sentenced to death in landfills in 1991 have been given a second life in newly established recycled electronic goods markets."

Carnegie Mellon University - Disposition and End-of-Life Options for Personal Computers (July, 1997)

4

"Increasing interest in the Linux operating system is helping to avert ecological mayhem from old PCs, it has emerged. A report in today's Nikkei Business Daily said that a non profit Japanese organisation will install the Linux OS on old computers and pass them on to schools and to social welfare organisations after cleaning old data on the hard drives."

The Inquirer - Linux OS Helps to Green the Planet (May, 2003)

5

"Six computer and electronics companies today won plaudits for good environmental business practices from Portfolio 21, a mutual fund in Portland, Oregon .... Henninger said the ... companies embody three manufacturing trends: no net contribution to global warming,; environmetric, or "green" accounting; and cradle-to-landfill responsibility for products. The six computer companies are: Advanced Micro Devices Inc. , Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., STMicroelectronics, and Xerox .... the fund's sustainability analyst cited Dell, HP, IBM and Xerox for lifecycle stewardship of their products."

Government Computer News - Computer Makers Clean Up Their Manufacturing (January, 2005)

6

"Disposition companies can determine the right blend of reuse versus refuse. Redeployment is highly cost-effective, but the asset will have to be relatively new to be useful in a production environment. Many companies redeploy old systems as solid little Linux servers."

CSO (i.e., Chief Security Officer) Online - How to Get Rid of Old Computers: A Practical Overview of the Process of Extending—or Extinguishing—the Life of Old Systems (December, 2005)

C.

Interesting OSS/FS - based solutions are entering into the discussion on how to reduce the harmful effects of electronic equipment disposal around the world. Some solutions seem to rely, in part, on extending the lifespan of equipment.

1

"One of the benefits frequently put forward for the use of Open Source Software is the level of resources needed to support it. This means that for equivalent Open Source and Microsoft Windows systems, the Open Source system will require less memory and a slower processor speed for the same functionality.

Open Source operating systems such as Linux do not usually have the regular major upgrades that are a feature of Windows, and thus do not have the requirement that goes with these upgrades for a new or upgraded computer to run them. This means that a computer running Linux can have a significantly longer working life than an equivalent computer running Windows. This has the potential to impact significantly on costs, including purchase of software and hardware, and indirectly by reducing business disruption whilst implementing change and upgrading. There are also potential Green Agenda benefits, through reducing the energy and resources consumed in manufacturing replacement equipment, and reducing landfill requirements and costs arising from disposal of redundant equipment.

Industry observers quote a typical hardware refresh period for Microsoft Windows systems as 3-4 years; a major UK manufacturing organisation quotes its hardware refresh period for Linux systems as 6-8 years."

United Kingdom Office of Government Commerce - Open Source Software Trials - Final Report (October, 2004)

2

"Computers pre-installed with Windows, for instance, may migrate to Linux due to various reasons. Old computers can often be reused with Linux and open source software, rather than a costly upgrade to a newer version of proprietary operating system and applications, and the hardware requirements can be much lower for open source products."

FLOSS - Infonomics - Free/Libre and Open Source Software - Final Report Part 2B: Open Source Software in the Public Sector: Policy within the European Union (see Section 3) (June, 2002)

3

"Economics does not dictate the frequency of upgrading in the OpenOffice alternative. At the same time, Open Office does not impose any major system requirements, and can therefore be used on relatively old machines. Replacement of thin clients/PCs every six years is therefore included in the calculations."

"In an alternative with OpenOffice, licenses do not have to be paid for, and at the same time OpenOffice is expected to make fewer demands on the equipment, so that the PC's have an economic life-span of six years."

European Commission IDA - Danish Board of Technology - Open Source Software in e-government (Pages 43,46) (October, 2002)

4

"The idea of 'Linux Ecology' is captivating both for its own merits as a way to protect the environment by conserving computer related resources and facilitating education, but also because of the very nature of Linux as an inherently democratic, decentralized, participatory system. Linux is free, open-source and possibly one of the most stable, efficient, adaptive and versatile operating systems ever devised, thus gaining wide and very loyal following. As such, it can serve both as an actual tool and as a symbol/example of the ideals of sustainability."

"Since it does not require big hardware, Linux may be used with old computers to make their life cycle longer. Games may be used in environmental education and software is available to simulate ecological processes. Though computers can be seen as part of environmental pollution, there are also ways to use computers in a more reasonable manner to help protect the environment."

Linux HOW TO - Linux Ecology HOWTO (February, 2003)

5

"There are two ways to use Linux on the desktop: as the usual system with a complete installed operating system and applications; or as a thin client....In a thin client scenario, all user data and applications reside on a server, and are transmitted to the user via a special graphics session. Backups and most system administration tasks need only be performed on the server, saving a significant amount of adminstration time. In other cases, older PCs can be reused as a means to cut costs, since the hardware requirements are less than would be required for a Windows upgrade. (p. 247)

"The Linux Terminal Server Project (http://ltsp.org/) provides a set of tools to implement an inexpensive Linux-based thin client solution for desktops....The Linux Terminal Server Project has come a long way in a short time, and won the "Best Open Source Project" award at Linux World 2003 in San Francisco. Because it provided the ability to make good use of aging PC hardware, the project also received the 2003 National Recycling Coalitions's "Outstanding Recycling Product or Process Award." (pp. 163-64)

mwinslow@mandrake.com - The Practical Manager's Guide to Open Source (August 2004)

6

"We designed our 1-Box software to bring affordable and environmentally-friendly computing to the world. Currently, less than three percent of the world's population owns a computer, yet computer hardware disposal is becoming one of the fastest growing threats to our environment. Who would have thought a software product, such as 1-Box, could reduce the environmental impact of computing by as much as ninety percent?" (What are the environmental implications of adopting 1-Box™?

LinuxPR - Environmental Friendly Computer Treats One Computer as Ten (November, 2004)

7

"Free Geek routes a computer one of two ways depending upon its chip technology. 386s and below, plus old Macs, are checked for still viable components and then broken up for delivery to metals and plastics recyclers. 486s on up (and newer Macs) are checked out, rebuilt, and serviced as needed. These machines are either given to volunteers who have completed 18 hours of service at Free Geek or offered to nonprofit organizations."

Franklin, Beedle & Associates - The "Green" Operating System: Linux (No Date)

8

"One notable feature of Linux is its modest (by comparison with other UNIX and Microsoft operating systems) hardware requirements - which allows it to run on older hardware configurations."

QinetiQ - Analysis of the Impact of Open Source Software - (see Section 1.3.1) (October, 2001)

9

"OSS/FS can often use older hardware more efficiently than proprietary systems, yielding smaller hardware costs and sometimes eliminating the need for new hardware. OSS/FS runs faster on faster hardware, of course, but many OSS/FS programs can use older hardware more efficiently than proprietary systems, resulting in lower hardware costs - and in some cases requiring no new costs (because "discarded" systems can suddenly be used again). For example, the minimum requirements for Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (according to Microsoft) <http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/sysreqs/default.asp> are a Pentium-compatible CPU (133 MHz or higher), 128 MiB of RAM minimum (with 256MiB the "recommended minimum"), and a 2 GB hard drive with at least 1.0 GB free. According to Red Hat, Red Hat Linux 7.1 (a common distribution of GNU/Linux) requires at a minimum an i486 (Pentium-class recommended), 32MiB RAM (64MiB recommended), and 650MB hard disk space (1.2 GB recommended).

In Scientific American&rsquo;s August 2001 issue, the article The Do-It-Yourself Supercomputer <http://www.sciam.com/2001/0801issue/0801hargrove.html> discusses how the researchers built a powerful computing platform with many discarded computers and GNU/Linux. The result was dubbed the "Stone Soupercomputer"; by May 2001 it contained 133 nodes, with a theoretical peak performance of 1.2 gigaflops."

dwheeler.com - Why Open Source Software / Free Software? Look at the Numbers! (see Section 7. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) item #4) (February 8, 2005)

10

"The hardware costs fall since open-Source Software uses resources very sparingly, and therefore hardware can usually be used longer. The software costs fall to the degree that OSS is used. However, it should be noted that when graphical user interfaces are used, and also with Linux, certain hardware requirements should be met since otherwise it is not possible to work at high speed....Older equipment still can be used as network servers because of the resource-saving characteristics since the server does not necessarily need a graphical interface. There are broad areas for use, in particular with slower external interfaces (e.g., ISDN selection connections for fax and e-mail). Here, the characteristics of Linux or FreeBSD that the systems provide excellent support for older hardware proves to be an advantage."

"The hardware can be used for longer because the operating systems use its resources sparingly. This means that OSS operating systems offer a further cost advantage."

Germany: Federal Ministry of the Interior - Open-Source Software in the Federal Administration - (see section 2. Equipment on Classical PCs), and secondly, the section entitled: "Longer Hardware Use" (February, 2000)

11

"Microsoft lately has been challenging Linux's suitability for older hardware, so it seems like a good time to look at Linux distributions that can run on older machines. I took six distributions for a test run on an old machine, and also tried software that turns old hardware into a thin client. The bottom line: Linux is still quite suitable for older hardware. It might not turn your aging PC into a powerhouse, but it will extend its lifespan considerably."

NewsForge.com - Linux Distros for Older Hardware (February 24, 2006)

12

"Sun’s claims for the environmental benefits of thin clients have to be considered in terms of the additional server capacity required by this model, but thin-client computing is also enjoying something of a resurgence, in large part thanks to Linux. Late last year, car hire firm Europcar International migrated thousands of PCs across Europe from Windows fat clients to Linux thin clients, lowering both its hardware and maintenance costs. A recent IDC report suggested that Linux-based thin clients have reached about 20 percent of the total thin-client market."

ZDNetUK - Sun Pushes Environmental Benefits of Thin Clients (May 4, 2005)

D.

Further Discussion

Although it seems reasonable that Linux boxes might run longer than machines running some other operating systems, all else being equal, there is scant hard evidence for this, that we can find. Although we have received anecdotal evidence, we have yet to find the definitive study on this issue. We continue to solicit such benchmark evidence. ARB may be able to compile some data on this, but this sampling would be too small to add much to this discussion. For now, we are faced with the argument that machines are replaced not because they wear out, but rather because vendors cease their support of these boxes and/or the software running on them thereby necessitating turnover.

Environmental disposal costs of electronic appliance stockpiles is growing. Reducing hardware refresh requirements and recycling old computers mitigates some of these costs. Using open source software can extend the lifespan of hardware for many applications thereby helping to reduce waste. Although the resulting green effect may not, by itself, sway many computer users to consider OSS/FS, it adds yet another rationale for such a migration.

If you would like us to set a link to another citation re: the potential "green effects" of OSS/FS or non-OSS/FS, please let us know.