Throwaway Britain: What Happens To Our Old Tech? (ft.com) 41
An anonymous reader shares a report: We fitted trackers in old, broken FT laptops -- cleared of data -- and gave them to the UK's six most prominent retailers, who are legally obliged to take back old goods from customers buying new ones. Over the next six months, the trackers took us on a curious tour of Britain, with stops at a Norfolk beach, two residential addresses in Slough and a warehouse in rural Wales. They opened a window into an industry plagued by an Achilles heel it calls "leakage" -- where goods slip through the fingers of formal recyclers into the hands of other, potentially questionable, actors.
All the retailers promised they would "recycle" the laptops, but one of the two we gave to John Lewis was stolen twice out of the recycling supply chain. Meanwhile, Argos sold the two we handed in to an eBay seller. None of the laptops we kept sight of ended up illegally exported, but some slipped into streams that could still head that way. [...] Six months after deploying the 14 FT laptops, 10 appeared to have been recycled correctly. Three deployed with Amazon, two with Dell, one with Curry's and one with John Lewis travelled to authorised recycling plants. The recycling company that received the three laptops we gave to Apple said they were recycled. The second Curry's laptop was still sitting at the site of a recycling company to be harvested for repairs, the retailer said.
Then the tracker went dark, meaning it is unclear where the laptop went next. "The fact it happened twice might just be unfortunate," noted Sayers, "or it reiterates the fact that stuff leaks." Justin Greenaway, commercial manager at Sweeep Kuusakoski, an electronics recycling plant in Kent, said household waste recycling centres were regularly targeted by criminals and "if e-waste is stolen it is often destined to be exported." Slough Borough Council, which runs the recycling centre, said the accuracy radius of trackers meant it could not be proved the laptop entered its site, but "if someone wanted to lift somethingâ...âit could happen without being noticed." WasteCare insisted that theft from its operations was "rare," minimised by 24/7 on-site CCTV and cameras in its vehicles, and said it was working "to put in place additional measures to avoid a recurrence." John Lewis said the company was reviewing its processes to prevent this from happening again. Approximately 114,000 tonnes of electronics are lost from the UK's recycling system to theft every year, according to a report by Material Focus, a non-profit electrical recycling organisation.
All the retailers promised they would "recycle" the laptops, but one of the two we gave to John Lewis was stolen twice out of the recycling supply chain. Meanwhile, Argos sold the two we handed in to an eBay seller. None of the laptops we kept sight of ended up illegally exported, but some slipped into streams that could still head that way. [...] Six months after deploying the 14 FT laptops, 10 appeared to have been recycled correctly. Three deployed with Amazon, two with Dell, one with Curry's and one with John Lewis travelled to authorised recycling plants. The recycling company that received the three laptops we gave to Apple said they were recycled. The second Curry's laptop was still sitting at the site of a recycling company to be harvested for repairs, the retailer said.
Then the tracker went dark, meaning it is unclear where the laptop went next. "The fact it happened twice might just be unfortunate," noted Sayers, "or it reiterates the fact that stuff leaks." Justin Greenaway, commercial manager at Sweeep Kuusakoski, an electronics recycling plant in Kent, said household waste recycling centres were regularly targeted by criminals and "if e-waste is stolen it is often destined to be exported." Slough Borough Council, which runs the recycling centre, said the accuracy radius of trackers meant it could not be proved the laptop entered its site, but "if someone wanted to lift somethingâ...âit could happen without being noticed." WasteCare insisted that theft from its operations was "rare," minimised by 24/7 on-site CCTV and cameras in its vehicles, and said it was working "to put in place additional measures to avoid a recurrence." John Lewis said the company was reviewing its processes to prevent this from happening again. Approximately 114,000 tonnes of electronics are lost from the UK's recycling system to theft every year, according to a report by Material Focus, a non-profit electrical recycling organisation.
Reuse IS recycling (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't get why they think this is bad. Re-use is absolutely the best form of recycling. Selling on e-Bay is a best-case scenario.
Re:Reuse IS recycling (Score:4, Insightful)
And talk of theft... If the laptops were worth stealing, then they were worth reusing and shouldn't be recycled yet in any case.
Re:Reuse IS recycling (Score:4, Informative)
As someone who worked in this field long ago, even broken laptops can be used for parts. The most common faults are all things that can be fixed relatively easily - hard drives, screens, keyboards.
My boss used to buy dead laptops, at least until he realised he could offer to "recycle" them for free.
Re: (Score:2)
My boss used to buy dead laptops, at least until he realised he could offer to "recycle" them for free.
A past employer rented a furnished office. I found an old Windows laptop and charger in my desk drawer. I assumed malware and wiped it and installed Linux. It would have been painfully slow for Windows but Linux ran fine. Nothing special, but we were a Windows shop and having a Linux box around is useful.
Re: (Score:2)
If the laptops were worth stealing
I'm afraid that you are attributing much more judgement to drug users than they deserve.
A gang of thieves executed a smash and grab heist of a Bitcoin vending machine from a convenience store not long ago. The machine takes credit cards and transfers BTC to your exchange account. Or writes it to media that the users take with them. There is NO CASH inside the box. Just a cheap PC. But hey! It looks like an ATM, so ...
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Why are ANY of the things you mention a problem?
Re-use, or refurbishment and re-use, or even theft and re-use: all of these recycle the machines with 100% recyling efficiency.
Re: (Score:2)
Theft is an issue because you can't trust the thief to wipe personal data.
Granted, you can't trust the recycler either, but most people don't know how to wipe their machines and have to rely on those promises.
Re: (Score:2)
Theft is an issue because you can't trust the thief to wipe personal data.
Granted, you can't trust the recycler either, but most people don't know how to wipe their machines and have to rely on those promises.
It seems to me that the personal data issue is also a personal responsibility issue, and that computer retailers and manufacturers, and governments, should step up and educate the public.
Given that, I agree with GP, and I think discarded devices have the same societal status as curbside trash does. Anyone who wants them should have them. Re-use, (either as-is or for parts to save other devices from the scrap heap), should take precedence. Recovering the raw materials comes second to reuse, especially if it'
Re: (Score:2)
Selling as 'broken for parts' is a thing too. The case might be good, the screen might be good, and if you're a soldering guy, you can take components from the board, mosfets, capacitors, ribbon cable connectors, etc...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't give a flying ratfuck about Argos or its shareholders ... the Earth is more important. Upcycling and reuse are the most Earth friendly types of recycling.
As long as they zeroed or removed the storage to remove personal data, my level of fuck-giving is negative, less than zero.
Re: (Score:1)
Re-use is bad for those who want to sell you a new computer.
Re: (Score:2)
Question the assumption against reuse (Score:3)
Yes, of course the systems need to be wiped and restored to factory defaults.
The problem is they weren't wiped (Score:2)
eBay to Linux (Score:3)
I'm asking because I did the former 10~15 years ago with all the family laptops and they all still run fine but are getting understandably long in the tooth. Since Linux runs fine on any (?) old models, there's no point in getting the latest and greatest. A 3yo laptop off eBay would be perfect for probably half the retail price. Is that a good strategy ?
Re: (Score:3)
Linux does run well on more or less "every" laptop now, although there are still some occasional power saving gotchas. But at least with a used laptop you can do some preliminary research.
The last laptop I bought to put Linux on was a brand new HP at target for $299, and it works great. AMD integrated graphics are very well supported by free drivers. GPU performance is poor, and I upgraded the RAM and SSD, but with used parts so the total price was quite reasonable. (I took it from 4/128 to 8/512 for under
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My hands are huge and I can't keep them on the home row without them hurting, so I have a weird typing style where I sometimes cross over the center. As a result, the trackpoint gets in my way. (My last keyboard with one was a Thinkpad A21p, that was some time ago...)
Re: (Score:2)
If it really is useless? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. I bet 90% of "broken" Windows laptops merely have disks (or maybe SSDs, but probably not so much on ones old enough to recycle now) that are (a) full and (b) heavily fragmented. In theory Windows will defragment if you leave the PC on overnight, but at least for me, I switch if off when not in use to conserve battery. And as Disk Cleanup (especially the Advanced options that clear out GB of cruft) is hardly advertised, the average two-finger typist Word user will never run it. A PC with a full 1
Someone sound upset. (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
This is an interesting story and - up to a point - good journalistic investigation.
And then they went and spoilt it by their need to be outraged - because everyone has to be outraged these days.
Shame.
Re: (Score:2)
That the laptops didn't go straight to a landfill.
What, no shredder to recover metals?
Upcycling is the best kind of recycling. (Score:2)
GLAD that they're being reused and that energy isn't being spent to grind them up and build a whole new laptop. Upcycling is the most Gaian of recycling methods.
No data/security risks if you zero the storage device repeatedly or just remove and keep it (still possible with many laptops that aren't rubbish from Cupertino).
I'm sure it makes the censors happy. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
And Apple will profit.
Steve Jobs, inventor of computing as a jail. Hope Gehenna's toasty.
Re: (Score:1)
3 Rs? (Score:1)
Apparently they didn't really teach Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in the UK?
Recycling (as in, destroying the object to turn it into reusable materials) is the absolute last destination of electronics. Ideally, they should be repurposed to some other role, or sold off.
Selling them overseas for export is absolutely a noble use: they'll either be repaired overseas and used, or they will be recycled. Most used laptops are only 3-5 years old, and aside from cosmetic damage or maybe a keyboard or screen, are perfectly f
Re: (Score:2)
It's the sort of unintended consequence that you get from bad legislation.
Or the retailers who smash stock (Score:2)
The other shameful landfill stream is electronics that get returned to the retailer and can't be re-sold.*
Instead of re-using, or harvesting for parts, these get physically smashed by the store before being put in a locked bin. Because heaven forbid someone might dumpster-dive and salvage a few parts instead of paying Jaycar's prices for a Molex connector.
* Part of this is due to the excessive use of plastic "clamshell" packaging for modern electronics, so that even a brand-new unused device returned under
Sashing didn't matter much (Score:2)
Because heaven forbid someone might dumpster-dive and salvage a few parts ....
In college days we did some dumpster diving near an HP facility. Smashing didn't matter much, get two or three of the same model printer and we could usually get one working. The smashing was often more cosmetic than functional.
Yeah, it would be more difficult to do that at a retail store unless they were currently stocking a "lemon".
I thought they were all still using BBC Micros (Score:2)
Is this really such a bad thing? (Score:2)
If people are intent on stealing computers, why not let them steal ones we won't miss, as opposed to ones we will?
Re: (Score:2)
The problem isn't the "leakage" of valuable goods from recycling bins, it's that they were in the bins to begin with. Something that appears to be the result of a rather foolish and self-defeating public policy decision.
Paywall! (Score:2)
"unlimited access
Only $1 for 4 weeks
Then $69 per month
New customers only
Cancel anytime during your trial"
69? Nice. :P