Green IT – It Just Makes Sense
With so many working Americans spending at least 8 hours a day in front of computers, linked to network devices or other peripherals and using electronic media, information technology is an area ripe with opportunities to help our environment and cut costs. Take the lowly printer cartridge as just one example. Companies that still print documents – a practice that should become increasingly rare – know that it’s easy to burn through dozens of printer cartridges in a week and that new cartridges are typically more costly that recycled ones. And the technology for recycled cartridges has improved to the point where the performance and yield of new and used cartridges is fast converging.
Computer parts and the raw materials used in them cost money; however, some of these materials can be gleaned from recycled computers at less cost to the manufacturer and at greater benefit to the environment. To get an idea of how valuable our e-waste can be, consider that according to the EPA, “one metric ton of circuit boards can contain 40 to 800 times the amount of gold and 30 to 40 times the amount of copper mined from one metric ton of ore in the US”. The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that in 2009 only about 25% of electronics ready for end-of-life management were actually recycled. The remaining televisions, monitors, laptops, servers, mobile devices – in fact, any electronic equipment – represent a huge potential resource. Tin, iron, aluminum, copper, gold, and cadmium are all examples of materials ready to be mined from the resource-rich computer that has reached obsolescence. Often, these materials can be extracted from old computers to use in newer models at far less cost to the manufacturer and ultimately to the consumer.
The recycling of durable electronic goods is just one area where it makes ethical and economic sense to go green. Watch this space as we share more in the weeks and months to come on what Island Joe Group is doing in the area of Green IT, helping clients save money and the environment. It just makes good business sense.
