Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists . People swamp Web sites that offer free computers, but Paul Kirk couldn't give away 800 Pentium PCs last fall. Computer disposal firms declined to take the machines, saying they were already loaded with castoffs that weren't year 2000-compliant. Charities and schools said 133 MHz was too slow for them. The rest went to recyclers that dismantled them and sold the scrap copper, gold and glass.
People continue to ignore the situation.
Gartner says 114 million PCs were sold last year, and another 133 million will be sold this year. And they'll all need a final resting place in a few years. Without a plan in place, PC disposal is a scramble for IT departments. Many companies actually end up spending money on machines that are no longer worth anything, either by paying recyclers to haul them away or by warehousing them for lack of a better idea. Yet when computers sit in landfills, environmentalists say, poisonous chemicals such as lead and cadmium escape into the air, soil and water.