Y2K legacy creates PC-disposal headache

It may be a little late but legislators in Europe, and to a lesser extent in the US, are working hard to make it as costly and as difficult as possible for defunct PCs to simply be dumped on landfill, and are forcing vendors and customers to accept more responsibility for disposal and recycling.

The EU Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) directive will become law in the UK from August 2004 – although it won't be properly enforced till 2006. The main aim of the legislation is to make manufacturers and consumers more responsible for the disposal of old machines.

Drive-up PC prices
Making vendors more responsible will increase their costs, and Gartner believes those costs will ultimately be passed on to end-user organisations. In a research note that Gartner issued earlier this year, entitled EU's New Recycling Rules could Drive-Up European PC Prices, the analyst group estimated that legal changes could add $60 to the price of PCs in Europe by 2005.

"From 2004, budgets should incorporate the costs of equipment disposal. From 2005, budgets should be allocated for a separate recycling fee. This will most likely be included in the purchase price of new PCs," said Gartner.

Keen to be green
The world's largest PC manufacturer, Dell, refused to 'speculate on any figures' when questioned on the accuracy on Gartner's predictions of a possible price-hike. All a spokesperson for the vendor would say is that WEEE would affect different countries in different ways and that Dell's direct selling model would continue to give it an advantage over its competition.

 "In terms of this report, it is too early to speculate but the costs will reside in different places for different countries, I think that is where we are right now," says Lena Pripp, Dell EMEA Sustainable Business Development manager.

It may be reluctant to speculate on the pricing impact of the WEEE legislation, but Dell is keen to be seen as green. In a statement issued late last month, the company said it was committed to boosting the recovery of used computer products by 50 percent compared to the amount collected in the last fiscal year. "We've shown that Dell can continue to grow while being environmentally responsible," said Dell chairman and chief executive officer Michael Dell. "We are determined to address the challenge of raising computer recycling rates globally and being the first in the industry to set public recovery goals."

But despite these ambitious targets, the company admits that current recovery rates represent less than 10 percent of Dell products sold in 2000. "We have a significant challenge ahead of us this year… we're happy with the direction of the numbers but we must increase our recovery rates."