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Local officials estimate that between 25 and 75 percent of this material is irreparable. So,
even assuming the low end of this range, Lagos landfills could be home to 100,000
computers and 44,000 television sets per month.
African importers don’t mind dumping useless materials into landfills; with the few
items they can remanufacture and sell, they still turn a tidy profit. For example, a working
Pentium III computer sells for about US$130 and a working 27-inch television sells for
US$50. Also, any working components can be sold separately.

NOTE Sometimes an unknowing exporter might put a Cisco router worth $15,000 into a shipping
container filled with mixed electronics. Those are known as “lottery tickets.”

Materials
Computers contain a lot of components and a lot of toxic materials. Effective recycling and
disposal is important because you want to prevent the following hazardous materials from
getting into the environment:

• Lead Used in glass in TV and PC cathode ray tubes as well as solder and
interconnects. Older CRTs typically contain on average 4 lbs of lead (sometimes
as much as 7 lbs), whereas newer CRTs contain closer to 2 lbs of lead.
• Mercury Used in small amounts in bulbs to backlight flat-panel computer
monitors and notebook displays.
• Brominated flame retardants Used in plastic cases and cables for fire retardancy.
• Cadmium Was used in Ni-Cad rechargeable batteries for laptops and other
portables. Newer batteries (nickel-metal hydride and lithium ion) do not contain
cadmium.
• PVC Used in wire and cable sheathing.

Means of Disposal

Obviously (but unfortunately not so obvious to some), you can’t just throw your computers
in the dumpster, slam down the lid, and call it a day. As highlighted in Chapter 2, different
areas have different requirements for the disposal of end-of-life technology. Recycling is one
way to get rid of old devices, but there are other strategies when dealing with old equipment.
This section talks about what you can do with all the computers you need to get rid of.

Recycling
Computer recycling involves breaking down the computer to recover metals, plastic, and
glass for reuse. It also aids in keeping hazardous materials from tainting the environment.
Computer recycling is complex, because there are over 1000 different materials in a computer.
As such, computers are one of the most complex things to recycle.
Computer recyclers are normally large companies or government programs. They need
to handle high volumes of recycling materials to make their business profitable. They look
for components containing precious metals, such as gold, silver, and platinum.