Of the around 16 billion mobile phones worldwide last year, almost every third is already waste again. However, only a small part of it is properly disposed of. With these figures, the WEEE Forum, an association for the collection of electronic waste and its professional disposal, pointed out the consequences of unbridled consumption for the environment.

Nevertheless, many treat themselves to the latest smartphone or notebook every year, even though the “old” one is doing its job. And although computing power is no longer increasing exponentially, the life cycle of a PC or notebook has fallen from an average of seven years in the early 1990s to two years today.

The devices do not break earlier, but are replaced more quickly by more powerful models due to lower costs. The result: every European household hoards an average of 13 electrical and electronic devices in its drawers. If the computer, telephone, USB cable or electric toothbrush eventually breaks down or you just don’t like it anymore, the temptation to put them in the household waste bin is great.

The environmental impact of our consumption is enormous

The consequences for nature are now obvious: On the one hand, the IT and electronics industry is heavily dependent on valuable raw materials such as rare earths, lithium, gold and platinum. However, these resources are limited on our planet, their extraction is difficult and often harmful to the environment, and the working conditions of local people often do not meet the required standards.

On the other hand, more and more discarded devices end up in the garbage. In 2020, every German caused an average of around 12.5 kilograms of electronic waste. If a disused electrical device is not disposed of properly, these raw materials are lost. The CO2 emissions generated during the dismantling were also practically in vain.

Adjusting screw 1: Alternative materials from existing raw materials

This justifiably raises the question: How sustainable can IT actually be? Or do you have to put up with environmental damage if you don’t limit consumption? No. The dominant economic model today is still linear: we take natural resources and use them to make products that we throw away when we no longer need them.

As a result, raw materials are mined faster than they are available. However, the large IT manufacturers have long since committed themselves to high environmental standards and more sustainability along the life cycle. There are many levers to change something. For example, manufacturers are increasingly turning to alternatives to the materials previously used.

Carbon fibers from the aerospace industry, which are used as the polycarbonate base for the manufacture of laptops, or housings made from bio-plastics, which are made from tree waste from paper production, have the great advantage that, in terms of degradation and manufacturing, significantly less climate-damaging greenhouse gases are produced. “Waste products” pollute the environment less than new raw materials that first have to be extracted.

Adjusting screw 2: Consistent recycling

Where there are no sustainable alternatives, it must be recycled consistently. For example, housings for computers and frames for monitors can be produced from processed plastic. Disused electronic items, in which valuable metals and rare earths are hidden, are also important suppliers of raw materials. Aluminum, for example, is extracted from old hard drive frames and reused in new ones. When you consider that a tonne of hard drives contains 800 times more gold than the same amount of gold ore mined, you realize the importance of proper recycling.

In order to get to the valuable raw materials, the e-waste has to be dismantled. This is still mostly done by hand: workers unscrew the devices and sort the individual parts. This is where the IT industry is challenged: Simple disassembly without special tools, minimal use of glue and screws and avoidance of unnecessary paintwork are prerequisites for facilitating the work of recyclers. Other companies melt down electrical parts and thus get their hands on the metals. Or they crush devices completely into small parts in a shredder, in order to then use machines to separate the plastic, metal, etc. from each other.

Aluminum, for example, can be recycled by type, and if it is then processed using hydropower, the carbon footprint is reduced by over 70 percent compared to the coal-fired smelting process. However, while metals are relatively easy to recycle, plastic is a little different. Plastics usually have their own additives that not all sorting machines can handle.

With the help of chemical recycling – i.e. breaking down the plastics into their individual building blocks – recycled molecules can be reintroduced into the value chain more easily than granules from conventional processes. However, this process is very energy-intensive and in turn pollutes the environment. Another challenge is the so-called “downcycling”: Compared to the original material, recycled plastics are often of poorer quality, which limits their use, but is definitely sufficient for the housing of a computer.

Adjusting screw 3: Refurbishing for a long life

However, recycling alone does not go far enough. The declared goal for more sustainability must always be the creation of a closed cycle. This means that raw materials are reused, so that less waste is produced and harmful greenhouse gases are avoided. In addition, the device remains in use for as long as possible.

Many companies may have high technical requirements and are therefore dependent on the most modern computers. However, if notebooks and PCs are discarded after the depreciation cycle of three years, they are by no means waste. Especially smaller companies, schools and educational institutions as well as private users can get along very well with processed, so-called refurbished models. Many of the used devices come from business leasing, so they are well equipped.

The large IT manufacturers take back the systems as part of so-called asset recovery services after the end of the contract period and bring them back onto the market after a complete overhaul. The refurbishing includes the professional deletion of the data, the replacement of defective parts and the installation of an up-to-date operating system. The result is a full-featured calculator that more than meets the needs of traditional tasks. Devices in poor condition also serve as a spare parts store – in the end all that is left is a cannibalized skeleton that goes to the recycling companies.