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Contents:

1 - Computers and the environment - an introduction to understanding and managing their impacts; 2 - Information technology products and the environment; 3 - Environmental impacts in the production of personal computers; 4 - How the European Union's WEEE directive will change the market for electronic equipment; 5 - IBM's environmental management of product aspects; 6 - Environmental management at Fujistsu Siemens; 7 - Energy consumption and personal computers; 8 - PCs and consumers - a look at green demand, use and disposal; 9 - Strategizing the end-of-life handling of personal computers; 10- Today's market for used PCs; 11 - Recycling personal computers; 12 - Operations of a computer equipment resource recovery facility; 13 - Managing PCs through policy: review and ways to extend lifespan.

Review:

Today, computers are so much part of the personal and educational scene that their utility is taken for granted. The focus is on power, speed, memory and the latest software. Only very recently has there been an attempt to look beyond the value of computer to see their impacts in other areas. Negative ideas of games and software abound but what of the beige box itself? Until now, there has been very little concern showed to this aspect. Now that we are finding recycling centres for mobile phones in our shopping centres perhaps it's time to see what impact computer disposal has.

One of the fundamental problems of computer usage is the perceived need to upgrade. It is assumed (especially by manufacturers) that people will upgrade every three years at least (and tax amortization schemes often make this explicit). However, the situation is not as simple as we might want to believe. Computers can end up as landfill but this is not benign landfill as our editors and contributors make very plain here. The opening chapter makes it clear where computers are and should be on the scale of product-life-cycle management. They have an impact and this needs to be addressed in a range of ways. As if to reinforce the recent nature of this work we get very few references prior to 2000. Chapter two examines in more detail the life cycle of the computer (and other ICT equipment) and highlights the environmental impacts at various stages in manufacture and use. This in turn leads to chapter three's examination of computer production. The materials used, and the legislation governing this are described. The next three chapters examine various organisations' attempts to control the impact. Chapter four looks at the EUs WEEE - Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment - and the measures being taken under it. There appears to be a real intention of addressing the problem of computer disposal. From 2005 it will be illegal to dispose of electronic waste alongside domestic waste. This has created a range of viewpoints so the contributors have described two scenarios along which this issue could develop - market driven and monopolistic system. In the former, recycling profits are put back into the company, in the latter there is little incentive to recycle. Chapters five and six keep to current ideas by outlining the work already being done in IBM and Fujitsu Siemens where it is obvious in both cases that much has already been achieved. Recycling is one option but since computers take far more energy to make than use it might be useful to see how we can alter the input side of ICT. Chapter seven starts by looking at energy consumption and the ways various computer products use it. A range of schemes to minimise energy such as 'Energy Star' are described. Alternatively, as in chapter 8, we can attack the issue at other areas - in this case, consumers. Do green options get onto consumer radars? Probably not if data here are anything to go by! Perhaps problems lie in how we create strategies for disposal. Using econometric models, chapter 9 considers ways we can improve the 3R - reduce, reuse, recycle - system . Up to this point, no-one has tackled the reuse of computers. Chapter 10 considers ways in which we can get more out of 'obsolete' PCs - not least by getting more people to accept that they might be useful machines. Since the culture of 'biggest, faster, largest' seems to be the standard which drives new computer and software sales we might also want to look at this as well. Another aspect dealt with next in chapters 11 and 12 is the actual practicalities of recycling. What are the problems and how might they be addressed? By looking at, respectively, the PC and the recycling plant, these contributors add more to the debate. The final chapter is both a review of current policy and law in a number of nations - Germany, USA, Japan etc. but also summarises the main arguments in the text.

There is much to recommend in this text. The chief virtues are that most of the topic is new and hasn't been covered in depth before and that the coverage here is comprehensive. Although it's a book aimed at the graduate market it's very well written with a minimum of technical detail and would be very accessible to senior students especially those with an interest in computers. The wealth of detail would make it ideal an case study, more detailed research project or even as a way to manage our own machines!