Used computers tough to trash
Disposal can foul environment

By DON GROSS
Newhouse News Service

As better, faster, more powerful computers are put on the market, many people are finding themselves the owners of technological jalopies.

But unlike car owners who have the option of dropping the old heap off at a junk yard or paying to have it towed away, computer owners are finding there are few outlets for obsolete computers.

Government officials urge computer owners to give their technological cast off to schools, churches and nonprofit organizations.

"Donate, donate, donate," said Richard Cahill, a spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Computers can be treated like other charitable donations come tax time.

It's all in an effort to keep computers out of the waste stream. Junk computers, Cahill said, are on the way to becoming a big environmental problem.

Computers are made of various parts that can be hazardous. Just the monitor and its cathode ray tube (CRT) are sources of lead, cadmium, phosphorus and magnesium -- all toxic chemicals. Other parts contain a variety of metals,including steel and copper, all of which are considered hazardous materials by the federal government and require special handling, such as burial in hazardous waste landfills.

AT THIS POINT no one has been able to assess the problem accurately, but they know it's large and growing. Queries to environmental agencies and computer companies alike revealed that officials have no idea of how many computers become obsolete each year, how many end up in landfills or how many are recycled.

Cahill said the problem has arisen so quickly that the EPA has not had timeto devise rules for home computer users or small businesses. The EPA does require big businesses that use many computers to give the CRTs special handling.

Sanitation Department spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins said New York City will pick up computers from homes along with the rest of the trash for burial in the city's landfill. but the agency would prefer not dealing with the problem.

But even non-profit groups that need computers are choosy these days. For instance, Susan Glass, director of Materials for the Arts, which provides computers and other goods to 1,200 arts organizations in New York, said."Call first, let us know what you've got, otherwise you might find yourself carrying it back home."

At this point she said, the oldest technology Materials for the Arts will accept is an MS-DOS machine with a 286 processor and a hard drive.

“At this point we can still get programs that run on those machines," she said. John L. German of Non-Profit Computing Inc., which acts as a go-between for people with old computers and potential recipients, said there is almost no such thing as a totally useless computer.

"ALMOST ANY microcomputer is placeable," German said. "I'm still getting donations of Apple IIs. All you have to do is match the recipient and the use. But we'd prefer to have things that are newer, faster, have more storage -- and are working."

The owners of machines a generation or two old, such as 386s, also have the option of selling them to computer stores that take them in trade or for cash. IBM refurbishes machines dating back to their PS 1 models, the equivalent of a 386, and sells them through a discount store in Armonk, N.Y.. said IBM spokesman Tom DeMeo. The machines all come from retailers' overstock or are returns.

Bill Donnelly of a Crocodile Computers outlet said a 386 will bring $75 to the owner and sell for about $150 retail. A 486 SX, which only two years ago sold for more than $2,000, is worth $300 on the resale market and $600after it has been reconditioned.

But he said there are just limits to what can be rebuilt and put back in the marketplace because spare parts become scarce. "I took 286s until about six months ago, but I just can't do anything with them anymore because I can't get parts," Donnelly said. "At a certain point, all an old computer is good for is a boat anchor."

Thus far the only large scale salvage operations are geared toward computer dealers and commercial users. Nicholas Albano, vice president of Advanced Recovery, Inc. in Belleville,N.J., one of the few salvage operations in the nation that specializes in electronics, said that's because the only law dealing with computer recycling is aimed at business users. ADVANCED RECOVERY is one of three computer recycles licensed to dispose of all components, including the CRT. The others are in California and Virginia.

Albano said the best of the old computers he gets -- mostly mainframes --are set aside for sale in a burgeoning Third World market that is first adopting computer technology and buying old computers and the software to run them. One volunteer is preparing to go to Mongolia for a year to setup a computer lab in the former Soviet nation.

Albano said he currently charges 5 cents a pound to cart away old computers,which most large companies think is a bargain. "One company had three warehouses full of stuff," Albano said."Selling it to us is cheaper than paying $21 a cubic foot for warehousespace." Once in Advanced Recovery's shop, the machines are stripped of all usableparts--processing chips, modems and usable video boards. The rest is stripped of all metal, which is then melted down. "Nothing is wasted," Albano said.

Albano said the CRT is the biggest problem. Each must he shrinkwrapped in plastic before being crushed to prevent the toxic materials inside from escaping. The phosphorus inside the tube is then burned off at extremely high temperatures while the heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium and magnesium,are melted into ingots. The cost to get rid of a CRT at Advanced Recovery is $15 per unit.