Gartner estimates that by 2012, emerging countries will annually have to dispose of 30 million secondary PCs. Those computers, bearing the names and logos of big-name vendors, that end up in landfills can do much to vanquish any sustainability or green efforts made by the OEMs. "Nothing exposes greenwash' more dramatically than an A-branded PC found dumped in a developing country in Asia or Africa," Escherich notes.

A 2009 noted that thousands of old electronic goods and components leave Europe bound for Africa and Asia every day, despite regulations, according to Greenpeace. "Some will be repaired and reused," notes Greenpeace in the article, "but many are beyond repair, meaning that they will eventually be dumped in places where no facilities exist for safe recycling."

Those companies that sell their aged PCs on the secondary market have to be mindful of relating to how they properly discard of their , say analysts. Handled incorrectly, incidents of poor controls over and lapses in security mechanisms can be embarrassing and bad for business. (See CIO.com's special report on .)

For instance, a team of reporters in 2009 illustrated the possible security problems when they bought a computer hard drive for $40 in a Ghana market which contained sensitive documents belonging to a Northrop Grumman employee. The documents were marked "competitive sensitive" and detailed company contracts with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Transportation Security Agency.

An Even Bigger Problem: Mobile Phones and TVs