RECYCLING parts of discarded computers is slow and expensive, so many used PCs in the US are simply dumped in landfills, or shipped to the developing world for disposal.
With funds from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the organisation EPCglobal is working with manufacturers to stick radio-frequency identification tags on all their components. The idea is to help automate the task and reduce electronic waste. The tags would broadcast each part鈥檚 make, model and history to a scanner as it entered a recycling plant. 鈥淚 could get the information in a split second as opposed to digging around in the parts,鈥� says Steve Skumac of SIMS Recycling Solutions in Richmond, California.
Hewlett-Packard, which is tagging printers sold in Brazil, was one of the first to sign up.
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