Irish businesses and home users are spearheading usage of the computer giant's pan-continental 'asset recovery service', writes Karlin Lillington

While businesses are beginning to get their act together in recycling computers, consumers have been much slower on the uptake, according to Dell.

The company says it is increasing its push to get home and business users to utilise a free recycling programme that Dell has in place as part of its asset recovery services (Ars).

Already, Irish businesses and consumers lead Dell's total EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) market in the take-up of these services, representing 27 per cent of the EMEA total, up on 19 per cent last year.

Last year, Irish consumers recycled 22 tonnes of used IT equipment through the asset recovery programmes, says Jean Cox-Kearns, Dell's senior manager for asset recovery services, EMEA .

Overall, Dell recovered almost 30 million kilos of used products from businesses and consumers worldwide last year.

Under the programme, anyone buying a new Dell product can have any make of old equipment collected from their home or business free of cost.

Owners of old Dell equipment can also have it collected at any time, regardless of whether they are making a new purchase or not.

In the Republic, Dell has a partnership programme in place with the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin that passes on any old information technology equipment that meets minimum standards to groups serving people with disabilities.

However, businesses make far more use of the programme than consumers, says Josh Claman, Dell vice-president, services product marketing, EMEA.

"There's a lot of demand in the corporate market, but very little demand in the consumer market. We've seen very little use of the take-back programme in the consumer market."

But that's not to say that businesses make a broad use of such programmes. A third of British companies still throw old IT equipment into the bin.

Dell's experience matches that of other companies and communities that offer PC recycling programmes - awareness tends to be low among consumers that PCs contain hazardous materials that should not go into landfill, even when awareness is high about recycling household waste.

Dell says it hopes the offer of free collection will spur more people to use the programme.It says it accepts that, in the past, it has not made it clear enough to consumers or businesses that a recycling programme is available.

However, Dell's website still does not make it easy to find such programmes. No direct link is placed on the EMEA homepage, for example, nor is there a link in the customer services, leaving website users to track down the information themselves.

Details on the programme are available if web users click into product subsections for home and business customers.

Meanwhile, the company made several other announcements around environmental issues at its annual European product preview for the media in Monaco recently.

Dell is required to meet international directives on recycling and the elimination of hazardous materials, and many of the steps it is taking are intended to meet those requirements.

The EU's ROHS (Restriction on the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances) directive requires companies to cut back on or eliminate the use of substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and flame retardants used in many computer products by July 2006. These substances can be found in unexpected places. For example, lead is a common component of cathode ray tube computer monitors, and each monitor has up to a kilo of lead.

Dell is quick to point out that it has already eliminated the use of chromium, cadmium and flame retardants and has restricted the use of lead, mercury and other non-regulated flame retardants in its products, ahead of the EU schedule.

Motherboards, chassis and power supplies are all lead-free and have not suffered any significant loss of performance, says Sam Burd, director, desktop product marketing for Dell.

The company also announced in Monaco that it would offer free recycling on the Dell inkjet cartridges that are obtained through its mail order system and it has worked to improve the energy efficiency of its desktops.

Even small steps, like offering product manuals online or preloaded on systems, help eliminate paper manuals and CDs that eventually end up as trash. "We have a pretty comprehensive approach to the environment," says Burd.

Despite international concerns about the amount of IT products ending up in landfills, there are still no industry standards for recycling, though many IT companies, including Dell, have their own standards, audit systems - both internally and with suppliers who ship the components from which IT products are made - and goals.

It's not all about wearing a green halo and aiming for a feel-good factor, though. Eliminating waste can mean cutting costs for Dell, too, says Claman. This is the case with manuals and CDs, which are costly to produce and which consumers generally don't want anyway.

Desktops and servers that operate more efficiently operate on lower temperatures which extends the life of component parts and lowers warranty costs to Dell over time, too, he says.

Some corporate customers are required to meet their own environmental goals and thus, wish to purchase more efficient products that have low or no levels of hazardous materials.

"There are a lot of reasons why we should take a leadership role on the energy front," Claman added.

How to recycle your IT equipment with Dell

Irish consumers can recycle any used computer system, monitor or printer at no cost with a new Dell purchase.

Dell will also accept returned Dell branded computer hardware from consumers who wish to recycle through the same service without a purchase. Dell also offers customers the option of donating used equipment to the RT Centre, a partnership between Dell and Dublin's Central Remedial Clinic.

Any brand of used computer equipment meeting minimum specifications can be accepted by the RT Centre and collected from consumers' homes for placement with organisations providing services to those with disabilities.

To take up either of these options, you need to go to the Dell website and enter your personal details, and someone will then arrange collection of the equipment.

However, this is easier said than done as there's no direct link from the Dell.ie homepage. Information on the recycling programme can be found if you click into either the home or business sections and scroll down the left-hand column. You'll see the Dell "recycling" logo and a link.