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Topic: Dell

That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

Summary: Less than one week after the consumer electronics industry vowed to do better on collecting, reusing or recycling end-of-life products, Dell has announced that it took in about 150 million pounds of unwanted technology in fiscal year 2011.That amount includes computers, monitors, printers, scanners and computer accessories.

Heather Clancy

By for GreenTech Pastures |

Less than one week after the consumer electronics industry vowed to do better on collecting, reusing or recycling end-of-life products, Dell has announced that it took in about 150 million pounds of unwanted technology in fiscal year 2011.

That amount includes computers, monitors, printers, scanners and computer accessories. Dell's collection rate increased 16 percent over the previous year; what's more, the company is about two-thirds of the way toward its goal of collection 1 billion in electronic-waste (aka e-waste) by 2014. The amount of stuff that was attributable to the Americas market is 95 million pounds.

For perspective, Hewlett-Packard (according to its latest Web site information) has collected about 2 billion pounds of electronics and supplies since 1987; 1.68 billion pounds have been recycled and (since 2003) about 450 million pounds have been reused.

The fact that Dell's collection rate increased by 16 percent over the past year is encouraging. As more businesses update their aging technology this year, post-recession, should be enlightened to see how many consumer and commercial customers take advantage of recycling and reuse programs.

Topic: Dell

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26 comments
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  • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

    Great to hear this bit of info. Consumers need easier ways to safely/securely dispose of obsolete technology.
    spaulich
    Reply Vote

  • This is all good but

    Did anyone see the 60 minutes thing about where some of this stuff goes? Some if it went to some little village in China or India (don't remember) where it was disposed off in a manner that polluted their environment and so on and even lots of this stuff went there through a company that was advertising that it's all taken care of properly here in the US. Bunch of crooks all of them.
    guiri
    Reply Vote

    • Playing the blame game?

      @guiri - It was shipped there because local laws did not care, and someone disposed of the waste improperly without regard to others living there.

      Whose fault is that?

      Apparently, the local governments for allowing all of this to happen.
      briank@...
      Reply Vote

    • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

      @guiri

      Being a plastic recycler, but not e-waste, myself for over 20 yrs, there are different kinds of ethical and non-ethical people involved.... just like in society, what a surprise!!! There is no way to know what an exporter does with scrap of any kind, but what we do know is thanks to excessive and over bearing government regulations it is too expensive to dispose of here so the majority leaves the USA!
      michaelwil@...
      Reply Vote

    • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

      @guiri
      Its the nature of people to just dump things wherever they can until someone tells them not to. Your neighbors probably do the same. You yourself probably have done something similar at some point until someone says "hey you can't do that".

      But really the fault lies in us. WE are the ones who must have a new cell phone every 6 months along with our 3 laptops/desktops and tablets. We never think about garbage. Once its out of our hands we assume its gone forever and we like to think that everything is neatly tucked away and magically disappears. Nobody is immune to this. I think this, you think this, everybody thinks it.
      rengek
      Reply Vote

    • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

      @guiri
      I agree. I did see this 60 minutes. Just because Dell collected the waste doesn't mean they disposed of it ethically. Dell, even though they are in the top 5 ewaste collecting/recycling companies, is not at the top this year. Why? Because the folks @ 60 minutes tracked their ewaste life cycle, and yes it did end up in a small region of China and Africa, where children run barefoot rummaging toxic ewaste in search of a few chips they can sell black market to make a few cents for food. And their parents, sit over coffee cans melting down greenboard in hopes of getting enough gold out of the traces. They do this with no respirators, no clean air to breathe. Day in and day out. These wastelands are a direct impact on this planet, and outcome of America's and other leading countries wasteful habits. And corporations decisions to cut corners, or declare hands off as soon as they sell the waste they collected to "said reputable recyclers". Don't believe the cover story, until some further research is done Americans. The main stream media has a tendency to sugar coat a lot of stuff.
      TheDragonchk
      Reply Vote

      • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

        @TheDragonchk Even if you were to demonize the selling of such 'toxic ewaste' to China and Africa - if you have children managing to sell 'a few chips ... to make a few cents for food,' then they're eating where otherwise they wouldn't be. Do you consider the alternative preferable? Do you believe their parents would be melting down greenboard if they had a better living to make? Unpleasant as it is, we must accept the obvious truth that they have no better more profitable labor to sell their time for than this - if they did, they'd be doing it instead. If it's an environmental catastrophe, well, unfortunately, poverty usually is, until such people aren't poor and can concern themselves with environmental concerns since they are no longer STARVING and actually have an infrastructure where they can produce goods valuable enough that survival is no longer their top priority. If this tragedy makes them richer, then, like it or not, it's may be a step in the right direction. If our use of that technology makes us produce more, we are richer, and we can (and will) use more of that to subsidize developing nations, even if it is by buying goods produced by low-wage labor. As long as people are poor, they will make sacrifices, sometimes awful ones, to be less poor. Yet they cannot be made 'not poor' by simply wishing for it, and trying to equalize wealth forcibly will not solve the problem, either. Help them develop, and they will be less poor. The current model, though it has room for improvement, is accomplishing that, slow as it may be.
        Mezath
        Reply Vote

    • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

      @guiri
      In May of 2009, Dell became the first major computer manufacturer to ban the export of ewaste to developing countries. You can read more about Dell's recycling policies and compliance here: http://dell.to/fEVEvz

      @shsdarwin FY11 refers to results from all of 2010

      Thanks for your comments and questions!
      CarlyatDell
      carly_tatum@...
      Reply Vote

      • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

        @carly_tatum@...
        Took them long enough. Dell in the UK have been electronic recycling since mid-last decade, due to EU WEEE legislation.
        neilpost
        Reply Vote

  • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

    Prior to declaring recyclers "...crooks all of them", which ones did you actually research yourself? Or are you in the habit of believing everything you read without applying the slightest bit of common sense?
    nkfro
    Reply Vote

  • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

    Are we talking the 2010 year or the 2011 fiscal year so far?

    We're only in April?
    shsdarwin
    Reply Vote

    • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

      @shsdarwin FY11 refers to results from all of 2010

      Thanks! CarlyatDell
      carly_tatum@...
      Reply Vote

      • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

        @carly_tatum@...


        Thanks for that.
        shsdarwin
        Reply Vote

  • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

    If you live in California, there's a great consumer electronics recycling program called ecollective. They have one within 10 miles of every household in California I believe, check out their website to find a location: http://www.myecollective.com

    Incidentally, all the ewaste they collect is processed domestically and refined down to its purest form, so no worries about it being sent overseas. The ewaste industry is "self-policed" (believe it or not) but there are groups such as BAN that establish best practices and "e-steward" certifications.
    csmithpm
    Reply Vote

  • 2011 is not half over yet

    Is this the number since 2011-01-01?

    Or, is this the number for 2010?
    paul.watson
    Reply Vote

    • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

      @paul.watson - Question already answered a couple of comments up
      bandersnatch42vt
      Reply Vote

  • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

    There are many reasons why it's not a good idea to make things like computers out of plastic anymore. The one that affects the bottom line most is the fact that the byproduct is virtually worthless. Or at least its only real value is hugely devalued because it can only be used to manufacture lesser products, and that value can only be realised after a great deal of labour-intensive sorting.

    And this is where Apple's decision to go over to aluminium comes in. Now, I admit that if volume computer manufacturers such as Dell had taken this route, there would have been a world shortage of aluminium.

    But, in 2007 when Greanpeace called for Apple to clean up their act Steve Jobs' response was prompt and decisive. He pledged to phase out the worst chemicals in its product range, Brominated Fire Retardants (BFRs) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) by 2008. That beat Dell and other computer manufactures' pledge to phase them out by 2009. Way to go Steve! Right?

    Right. But even though aluminium costs more than plastic, the decision didn't hurt Apple's bottom line. Why? Because when Apple accepts its own aluminium computers back they don't face the same level of sorting, grading and devaluation issues as Dell. High grade aluminium can be reused as it is - for other high grade aluminium products.

    So, whilst Dell's massive 'successful' reusing and recycling of end-of-life products policy represents a financial hit on their bottom line in real terms, Apple's does not.

    I study business models, and the more I look at Dell's business model the more certain I am that they cannot survive.
    Graham Ellison
    Reply Vote

    • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

      @Graham Ellison
      tigertatum
      Reply Vote

  • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

    Your comments on Dell and Apple are intresting and informative I am sending this message on a Dell computer but I know I am going to Investigate Apple's products before I buy another.
    tigertatum
    Reply Vote

  • RE: That's heavy: Dell collects 150M pounds of e-waste in FY2011

    I am to use donate some my gear to Goodwill if it doesn't work or can't be fixed or just old technology I will use Dell or HP ewaste programs , but Dell and HP need to put commericals on TV to get the word out about these services and same with HP because we need more ewaste centers in the US and In Houston,Texas , the local station had ewaste or ecycle or erecycle drive for old technologies
    g33kt3ch713
    Reply Vote
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