Rob Jones

The thing about computing is that it has a tendency to bring out the hoarder in us - or is that just me?

I seem to be physically unable to throw out old kit, be it digital cameras (I still have my first, an 8MB Vivitar Vivicam 3000 with no screen and a resolution of just 640 x 480), old CD drives and graphics cards, big, boxy modems, aged software, PDAs, mobile phones, speakers and various components and cables that I know I will never use.

Some of these have yet to be relegated to the loft and emotionally I know that, despite their obsolescence, I will not be getting rid of them any time soon. Because you never know when they may come in handy ... or so my argument goes.

An old scanner that could only produce colour in shades of green was finally chucked out recently - but only after sitting for months on the floor used as nothing more than a glorified (very) low-standing table. I kept the cable just in case.

But the way we throw out old hardware - be it a PC, monitor, printer or scanner - will change from August, with the forthcoming Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (although the directive's full requirements will not come fully into force until August 2005).

The directive aims to start tackling the growing mountain of waste products occupying landfill sites, and the statistics make uncomfortable reading.

Around one million tonnes of electrical and electronic equipment are dumped each year, of which 39 per cent is computer hardware.

While retailers and vendors will have to make provisions for taking back old equipment, there is nothing to stop the consumer simply throwing their waste into the household bin.

So the disposal of goods can best be described as a bottlebank for high-tech waste. But more is going to be recycled, and where this is not possible, burnt for energy.

There are two obvious downsides to this directive. First, it is the consumer who will pay the price because you can be sure that, if retailers and vendors have to spend money taking back and safely disposing of waste equipment, so will you when you buy your replacements.

The second, in my view, is the voluntary nature of the scheme. With no comebacks for putting an old printer in the bin, perhaps hidden inside a bin liner, then only those committed to helping the environment are going to think twice about how they throw away their old equipment.

How households dispose of electrical equipment is tough to monitor, but the directive is a start.

It prompts an education process that makes us think about what we do with the hardware we no longer need, and hopefully will pretty quickly have us safely disposing equipment, rather than letting it add yet more to the local landfill site.

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