Used PC Strategy Passes the 'Toxic Buck'

06.07.2009
The secondary market for PCs in emerging parts of the world is sizeable: In 2008 alone, according to Gartner, 37 million used PCs were refurbished and exported to developing markets. Gartner analysts forecast that the number will jump to 69 million by 2012.

The global economic recession has only intensified demand in markets for secondary PCs, which Gartner defines as one that is repurposed after its primary use has ended and must have been used for more than 120 days. Demand for secondary PCs, say Gartner analysts, "will outstrip supply for years to come."

On its face, the used PC market can be considered a good thing (or a "win win" in 1990s parlance): Developing countries and their government organizations, schools and populations get good computers that might have ended up prematurely residing in a storage closet or landfill. Gartner maintains that the PC manufacturing process accounts for 70 percent of the natural resources used in the life cycle of a PC, so it's good for Mother Nature to extend the lifetime of any PC.

However, as the June Gartner report explains, "reuse does not necessarily mean 'greener' IT because growing exports for reuse or recycling are leading to increasing e-waste in emerging markets that simply don't have the controls or incentives to adequately dispose of PC parts.

"Although reuse must be considered preferable to most other forms of waste management," notes Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner in the report, "without effective controls, exports for reuse can be an excuse for dumping, and even in the best case result in 'passing the toxic buck' to emerging economies, which are seldom equipped to deal with this problem in an environmentally and socially responsible way."

Sustainable Efforts or Greenwash?