Do businesses need to do more about their e-waste?
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Electronic waste – or e-waste – is a growing global problem. According to research by USwitch, the UK produced the second highest volume of e-waste in the world in 2022, after only Norway.
It includes everything from computers, laptops and tablets to mobiles, plugs, cords and electrical components.
The UK is actually on track to secure the top spot by 2024 if we keep up current habits, says Steve Haskew, head of sustainability and social leadership at Circular Computing. “While this [prediction] is combined with consumer e-waste, businesses in the UK need to recognise the role they play in addressing the growing pile of e-waste.”
He estimates that around 7.5 million of UK workers use a laptop or desktop – and that a laptop’s life cycle is only three to four years. So that’s a lot of devices.
“The pandemic and resulting work from home boom created a big shift in the IT needs of the workforce. We went from relying on desktops and landline telephones to needing to invest in laptops and mobile phones,” says Haskew.
“This shift means that there were, and likely are to this day, thousands (if not millions) of old desktop PCs cluttering up storage cupboards in offices.
“The increase in demand for laptops has also meant there are a lot more being disposed of.” According to Circular Computing, 160,000 laptops are disposed of every day in the EU alone.
Where does e-waste go?
The current IT model is a vicious cycle of take, make and replace that is slowly harming our planet, says Haskew.
E-waste contains toxic substances that can be released into the environment, like mercury and lead, but also materials of real value that could be used again. And we could be sitting on a goldmine – the estimated value of raw materials within the world’s e-waste is said to be around ￡46 billion.
But unfortunately, only a small amount of e-waste (an estimated 17.4% globally) is knowingly collected and recycled properly. “This means a lot of toxic and valuable materials end up in landfill,” says Haskew.
“A lot of e-waste also ends up overseas in already impoverished nations, such as the dump site Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana, causing health and environmental issues for local people.”
These big sites can also cause pollution in the air and contaminate water. And in many cases, developing nations are the ones shipping the waste to poorer countries.
It’s not just getting rid of old devices that is the problem for the environment. “For every new laptop having to be made in replacement, an average of 331kg of CO2 is created, 190,000 litres of water is used and 1,200kg of earth and rock is mined,” says Haskew.
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What should businesses do?
Electronic equipment that’s no longer at its peak performance is not completely useless.
Haskew urges businesses to invest in the circular economy and properly re-use technology, through refurbishing and remanufacturing, to help them develop a sustainable consumption and production model.
“While there is a strong environmental and financial argument to not buying new, there are some users that need absolute power, and replacing their kit frequently is a requirement of this.
“The general behaviour of most businesses though, is to do a 100% technology refresh, 100% of the time. Doing so means you’re often going to end up having to discard a valuable and useful piece of existing kit. But technology at the end of its first lifecycle has so much potential to have a second life if treated correctly, through processes such as remanufacturing.”
Sending tech through a remanufacturing process means it will be ‘built again’ as if it were new. “But, 99% of all materials will be re-used, with the remaining 1% recycled or repurposed,” he says.
Motherboards, for instance, can be crushed to make composite plastic.
“This means zero e-waste will be produced from old technology and in addition, you end up producing a laptop that is certified as being as good as – if not better – than new, and will be able to go back out on the market.”
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