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The global e-waste problem is escalating. A lot of the electronic devices are IT and Telecommunications Equipment and are used by corporate consumers. But using metrics to quantify how well a corporate consumer of IT equipment responsibly manages it once it has been used and is no longer useful to the corporate consumer doesn't solve the underlying fundamental problem of e-waste.
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The fundamental problem of IT and Data Center E-waste
2013 2017
48.9 million!metric tons!
E-waste
65.4 million!metric tons!
E-waste
Expected growth: 33%
source: StEP Initiative
The global e-waste problem is escalating
Champions?
E-waste per capita figures gives a different view on e-waste production
World’s totals of e-waste 2012
Nr 1 China!11.1 million tons
Nr 2 USA!10 million tons
USA!29.8 kg a person
China!5.4 kg a person
A lot of the electronic devices are IT and Telecommunications Equipment and are used by
corporate consumers. !
So some way or another they are taking part in this explosive growth of e-waste.
E-waste can cause severe environmental !damage and harm to human health.
E-waste is also about wasting rare earth metals. !Metals which are essential for IT equipment and !
are very costly to produce.
Illegal e-waste exports are considered as an environmental crime.
Incentives to ActMoral
LegalFinancial
The Green Grid proposed a simple metric to quantify how well a corporate consumer of IT equipment responsibly manages it once it has been used and is no longer useful to the corporate consumer:
the Electronics Disposal Efficiency (EDE) Metric
EDE = Total weight of decommissioned IT equipment by known responsible entities
Total weight of decommissioned IT equipment
You can't manage what you don't measure?
Using this metric is a good start for creating awareness of the e-waste issue in a corporate environment but there is a fundamental problem.
The idea is that an organization must manage all of its material streams. When an object is obsolete (“end of current use” (EOCU) or “end of life” (EOL)) there are three possible materials streams:
reuse, recycling and waste (landfilling or incineration).
Linear Take-Make-Waste SystemE-waste is a symptom of the current mainstream !
industrial production system, a system inherited from the industrial revolution of the 18th century.
Extraction Production Consumption Disposal
By definition this classical linear way of producing is unsustainable.
Infinite resources? !Now in the 21st century we should be know better.
∞Resources ≠
Cradle to CradleAll materials used in industrial or commercial processes fall into one of two categories: Technical nutrients can be recycled and Biological
nutrients can be decomposed and all can be reused in !continuous production cycles.
RecyclingDecomposition
TechnosphereBiosphere
Produce & Assemble
Product Life
Collect & Disassemble
Circular economy
A fundamental transition is needed.! !
Instead of buying, consuming and wasting products one should try to buy services where products are used and recycled. !!In this circular economy model manufacturers retain the ownership of their products and, act as service providers, selling the use of products, not their one-way consumption as in the current linear economy. !!
This should be the fundamental solution to e-waste.
Utopian dream?
An utopian dream? Multinationals like Philips and InterfaceFLOR are already working with this concept by selling light-as-a-service or carpet-
as-a-service and creating closed production loops.!
So why not start with Information Technology as a Service and closing the production loop?
