Analysis of Computer Recycling Awareness of Residents Near Education and Computer Recycling Center of Santa Clara Philip J Chen Abstract Education and Computer Recycling Center CRC of Santa Clara is a non profit organization that receives most of its computer donations ranging from 10 computers to as large as 24 full palettes 1 2 m2 per palette loaded with computers per donation from large Silicon Valley companies The computers donated by local residents constitutes far less mass donated to CRC compared to these companies In this thesis I investigate the degree to which residents are aware of computer recycling programs and the history of their computer disposal habits Randomly selected residents living within a 1 2 km radius south of CRC were surveyed about their habits and computer recycling opinions 78 9 of residents were not aware of nearby computer recycling programs 46 3 of residents indicated they don t know or it doesn t apply when given a list of recycling options in the survey This large percentage indicated that the study was premature in that better survey data could be obtained from this study site given a few years of this study CRC currently receives computers from approximately 30 individuals per day A representative of CRC who was interviewed said that CRC would be capable of handling an increase in donations from residential computer waste CRC operates with the help of State grants and raises additional funds through resale of some computers With the amount of computer waste from residential donations if CRC is capable of handling the mass resources can be saved landfill space can be conserved and materials can be reclaimed from this computer waste Introduction Over the last decade the use of desktop computers seems to have become more prevalent in the way people interact and function at work and at home as people use them for a variety of purposes ranging from entertainment to running businesses As technology advances and new software requires faster computer components people are more likely to opt for the more powerful computer systems offered even though the older now obsolete systems are still functional Malfunctions and lifetime of the equipment normal wear and tear of computer components can also render a desktop computer obsolete As they find replacement parts unavailable or frustrating to find people will find it more economical to purchase a new system rather than replacing the non functional part In either case the desktop computer systems or components being replaced are usually stored sold donated or disposed of Computer recycling has been around for at least a decade One study estimates that by the year 2005 about 150 million personal computers will have been sent to landfills EPR21998 With limited landfill space remaining for our cities this figure shows that an effort must be made to reduce the volume of electronic waste generated Reuse or recycling of these computers should reduce the strain on landfill space Aside from space limitations for disposal unmarketable or unrecyclable materials generated from computer waste are sent to energy recovery programs to be incinerated Clark 1995 The loading of heavy metals in the municipal solid waste stream was a fundamental driver for the two collection programs Union County and Hennepin County where most of the residential solid waste stream is incinerated Both Counties believe that removal of EEE waste from the waste stream may play an important role in reducing the heavy metal burdens in the fly and bottom ash which can result in an indirect economic benefit for the community by lowering ash disposal fees USEPA Region 1 1999 Reduction of electronic and electrical equipment EEE waste found in municipal solid waste through recycling programs may help reduce release of heavy metals into local areas around incineration facilities There are few operations today that recycle components such as plastics cathode ray tubes CRT and precious metals from computers These operations need to operate at near full capacity in order to function EPR21998 Barriers to smooth and successful operations are costs required for the stages of demanufacturing of computers In a study done by the EPA the cost of demanufacturing CRTs overseas is estimated to be only 1 10th of the equivalent costs in the San Jose area USEPA Region 1 1999 Location of demanufacturing transportation and disposal costs can overwhelm all other factors for cost Printed circuit boards high grade breakage hard drives motors and mixed metal parts mixed metals and wires generally comprise the majority of revenue generated from scrap USEPA Region 1 1999 My interest in this research comes from realizing that a desktop computer has metals that can be reclaimed and toxic materials that are hazardous to the environment Currently the nonrecyclable components are usually incinerated Clark 1995 Many of the components in a computer have integrated or composite materials In order to reduce the total mass of electronic waste that will be incinerated the industry needs to design components made of materials that are more readily separable to be reused or recycled and reduce the number of components that will be sent to the incinerator or landfills Reuse of functional computer components reduces the amount of waste going to landfills Reuse is a more environmentally friendly solution to dealing with electronic waste than incineration Previous research deals with the problem of non profit recycling programs and barriers encountered with collection and distribution of computer waste EPR21998 Recycling does not need to be on a large industrial scale all around us we see discarded items that are of value for other purposes Barton 1979 Some recycling operations operate on a large industrial scale but the Education and Computer Recycling Center CRC is a small scale operation that deals with collection repair and reuse of computers Large industrial scale operations would encompass collection and processing of materials A workstation is a high end desktop computer It is defined as one CPU containing a motherboard two interface cards one hard drive one floppy disk drive one disk control card one power supply and associated cables and switches one display one keyboard one mouse cables and a power strip Fiksel 1996 Modern computer systems consist of parts that have many different integrated components that produce wastes which small scale operations like CRC may not be able to handle
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