Editor's Focus: Planned Obsolescence, The Tech Way

The automotive industry took a lot of flack in the 1970s for a perceived
practice called planned obsolescence. Detractors of the industry claimed
that automakers intentionally designed and built models that would rust
or suffer critical mechanical breakdowns after five or six years, thus ensuring another sale within a few years.

Perhaps only a conspiracy theorist would accuse software makers of borrowing this tactic from Detroit, but certainly the constant upgrades of computer programs have helped bolster the revenue of software companies. And—to their credit or discredit, depending on one’s point of view—they sped up the obsolescence cycle by introducing upgrades every two or three years. In many cases, upgraded hardware with additional memory was required along with the software upgrade.

In any event, both the auto and the computer hardware industries are among the global leaders in consuming basic materials to create products that become obsolete in a decade or less. When vehicles reach the end of their road, there are plenty of willing recyclers ready to push the vehicle through the recycling loop. Re-usable parts (and those that can be reconditioned) are harvested by salvage yards and auto recyclers, while scrap recyclers shred what’s left to make sure the metal is captured for recycling.

For computer equipment, the first part of the pattern is largely in place. Markets have mushroomed for re-usable equipment, chips, power units and some other components. Unfortunately, much of what remains has traditionally been sent to the landfill.

Several considerations may be bringing about a change in what happens to computer equipment when it reaches the end of its useful life. Environmentalists are concerned about the disposal of computers in landfills. Similarly, troubling questions concerning environmentally safe and sound practices overseas have been raised about the once lucrative export market.

While regulators and activists rightly point out the safety and health shortcomings of some end-of-life options, entrepreneurs are hoping to maximize the business opportunities of recycling obsolete office and computer equipment.

The concerns are as great as the opportunities, as domestic recyclers face the same safety issues as overseas operators or landfill owners. Some observers caution that the shredder operators will have to take maximum precautions to protect workers from harmful substances (lead and beryllium being the most prominent, but by no means the only ones) whether in solid form or in particle form during and after shredding.

On the positive side, auto shredders have faced (and continue to face) similar challenges, but have endured as an established recycling technique. Electronics recyclers may well face substantial hurdles on their way to finding the safest and most effective way to recycle obsolete computers, monitors and office equipment, but hopefully these hurdles can be cleared.

The subject of this month’s cover profile, Gold Circuit Inc. of Chandler, Ariz., is one of the companies attempting to change the end-of-life story for computer equipment. Whether computer and office equipment shredders soon become as commonplace as auto shredders remains to be seen, but as of right now entrepreneurs are willing to take the chance to make it work.

The photos used to accompany the August feature on the 2002 Paper Recycling Conference ("Rising Again," Recycling Today, August 2002, pg. 64) should have been credited to Wayne Catalano Photography, based in New Orleans.