Recycling IT equipment is “stupid” and should not be the top concern within a company’s eco-agenda, according to Simon Drury, business partnerships director of the UK government’s Envirowise Project, which hands out free advice to businesses on green issues, BusinessWeek writes.
Instead, companies should purchase equipment that can be reused, with accessible parts that can be replaced easily, rather than recycled. “Recycling is stupid,” Drury said, speaking at a Green Computing in Practice roundtable. “It should be the second to last thing which we do before throwing away something.” Instead, Drury says companies should reuse or donate obsolete IT equipment to developing countries.
“If you have a whole pile of technology which is taking up a great deal of resource and is going to be difficult to service, you are just offsetting your problem to other places in the world,” said Labour MP Alan Whitehead.