A quote from a PC World magazine on “The Digital Future” said, “in the future, people will live twice as long, computers will die twice as fast” 1. As computer technologycontinues to accelerate at an unprecedented rate, information technology (IT) equipmentwaste is becoming an increasingly significant portion of the solid waste stream. Information Technology equipment waste is receiving increased attention for the following reasons: Rapid advances in technology result in IT equipment becoming obsolete at an increasingly rapid pace. This is resulting in an increase in the rate and quantity of IT equipment entering the waste stream; A piece of IT equipment was, or is typically of high value, both in terms of its component parts and the equipment itself; IT equipment commonly contains toxic materials, which are hazardous if not managed properly.This project provides a broad overview of how such products arehandled and to estimate the amounts of these products and materials that will enter thewaste stream in the next few years.The specific waste streams addressed include: personal computers, monitors, laptop computers, peripherals (e.g., printers, scanners),2.0 WASTE ESTIMATES FOR IT EQUIPMENTThis section will address the generation and flow of computer equipment waste from both residential and IC&I sources in Canada. The types of computer equipmentaddressed in this project and discussed in this section include:- Computers (personal computers, servers);- Monitors;- Laptop computers;- Printers;- Note-pads/note-books, and;- Peripherals (scanners, modems, keyboards etc.).The flow of computer equipment in the solid waste stream will require increasingattention in the future for the following reasons:- The decreasing lifespan of IT products and their increasing annual sales,resulting in greater discards of computer equipment waste on an annual basis;- The mixed composition of computer equipment (i.e., metals, pl...
