The A to Z of green IT

Recycling

Recycling may sound greener than Kermit the Frog - but it does have its critics. They argue it is better to choose more eco-friendly products in the first place, so reducing the need to reach for the recycling bin.

Green IT from A to Z

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A is for Abroad
B is for Blades
C is for Carbon footprint
D is for Data centres
E is for Energy sources
F is for Freecycle
G is for Government
H is for Homeworking
I is for Ice caps
J is for Jobs (Steve)
K is for Kilowatts
L is for Landfill
M is for Mercury
N is for Nanogeneration
O is for Offsetting
P is for Paperless office
Q is for Queen
R is for Recycling
S is for SmartPlanet.com
T is for Travel
U is for Upgrade
V is for Virtualisation
W is for WEEE
X is for Xmas
Y is for You
Z is for Zero emissions

And not all corners of Whitehall agree with recycling either, as Simon Dury, business partnerships director of the government-funded eco-advice project Envirowise, recently said: "Recycling is stupid. It should be the second to last thing which we do before throwing away something."

Dury added instead of recycling, companies should reuse or donate obsolete IT equipment to developing countries.

And Dury is not alone in his stance - silicon.com columnist Peter Cochrane agrees "recycling is rubbish" and said it's just another misguided habit which may be doing more harm than good to the environment.

But the recycling of electronic waste in Europe could be improved with only about 25 per cent of Europe's medium-sized household appliances and 40 per cent of larger appliances are collected for salvage and recycling, leaving "substantial room for improvement", according to a study for the European Commission by a United Nations University-led consortium.

Those that do recycle PCs should also beware, with nearly one-third of UK corporate past-it PCs still holding sensitive data on them when they are discarded, according to research commissioned by Lenovo.