Recent changes to the rules on the disposal of electronic equipment have been made by the European Parliament. Below is a couple of extracts from an article written by the Guardian and our views on the new rulings.
The European Parliament has been criticised for waving through revised recycling rules on the disposal of electronic equipment without including any provision to promote the reuse of old equipment…..
However, UK-based IT charity Computer Aid slammed the new recycling rules as “extremely disappointing”, after MEPs ignored calls for a separate target to encourage the re-use of old electronic equipment that could be refurbished.
The organisation relies on donations from companies to ship refurbished IT equipment out to communities in Africa, Asia and South America, and had led calls for a binding reuse target as part of the new regulations.
Jamie’s Computers agrees with Computer Aid that it is more environmentally efficient to prolong the life of products where possible. Reusing a computer is up to 20 times better for the environment than breaking it up and recycling it. Manufacturing new computers to replace those that are recycled uses energy, fossil fuels and finite resources whereas prolonging the life of a computer is the best way to reduce the carbon footprint of IT.
Jamie’s Computers continues to find that there are many families and individuals on low incomes that can bennefit from low cost refurbished IT.
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