Breathing new life into the cast-offs of the economic boom may offer a way of bridging a widening digital divide in the Republic. For while technology is driving the boom, there are large sections of society who are in danger of being left behind.
However, a new project will take the computers that companies usually dump or destroy and give them to people who might not otherwise have access to new technology.
One of a number of Life recycling projects, and backed by recycling companies, State agencies and local authorities, the initiative is looking to take advantage of the current pace of technological change. Irish companies are constantly upgrading and overhauling their computer systems and, as a result, many computers are treated simply as waste. Many older or outdated desktop models are either being dumped in a landfill or mashed into pulp to be broken up into their constituent elements for recycling.
Willie Scully, of Fingal Recycling in Dublin, which is participating in the project, says salvaged computers will be distributed to disadvantage children and families, either for a nominal price or, in some cases, free, throughout the Dublin Corporation area and in Tallaght. The idea is to give people who would not normally be able to spend over £1,000 on a computer access to the technology which will play a large part in shaping our society over the coming years.
"If these people don't get in on the IT scene now, they will be left behind. Without computer literacy now, it is very hard to go anywhere," says Scully.
The initiative is a joint venture between the four local authorities in Dublin, Apple Computers, FAS, and the Sunflower and Heat projects which aim to tackle long-term unemployment and disadvantage in Dublin.
For those who donate their used computers, the project offers an easy method of disposal. With new legislation which will outlaw the landfilling of computers, it may even save them money.
Televisions, stereos, videos and mobile phones have already become disposable goods and, as the price of computers falls, they too will have a shorter lifespan. The EU is predicting that electronic waste will grow at three times the rate of domestic waste in the coming years.
Scully describes this project as "a prototype for the rest of the country. In 18 months' time, all electronics and electrical goods will have to be recycled under new European legislation". It is seeking funding from the EU, which it hopes will be approved by May and will then be matched by the Irish participants.
Confidentiality is often the reason that most companies do not look to sell on their old computers, either for parts or as a whole. Although most of the information held on the hard drive of a computer can be easily erased, there is still a fear that if old computers fell into the wrong hands, sensitive commercial information could be recovered and used to the detriment of a company.
The answer, according to Scully, is for his company and other participants to take the computers and drill or shred the hard drives of the computers so that they will never be accessible or usable again. New hard drives will then be installed on the old computers by Fingal Recycling.
Supplying this number of new computers to people for free would normally cost millions, but the project offers a way of doing so at a very low cost.
