Environmental Issues

Every device has a life cycle: raw materials are extracted from the ground, the device is manufactured, transported to where it is sold, used, and finally disposed of. Each stage can harm the environment, and a surprisingly large share of that harm happens before the device is ever switched on.

Raw materials and mining

Devices are built from metals and minerals such as aluminium, tin and nickel. These are non-renewable: the Earth holds a fixed amount, so once they are mined and used up they cannot be replaced. Mining uses huge amounts of energy and water, scars the landscape, destroys habitats, and the waste rock and chemicals used to separate the metal can pollute soil and rivers. The aluminium in a games console casing, for example, is dug out as ore, crushed and then heated with enormous amounts of electricity to release the metal.

Manufacturing and transport

Turning those materials into chips, screens and circuit boards takes more energy. Factories run machinery and keep production areas at carefully controlled temperatures, and the electricity they use is often generated by burning fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide. The finished devices then travel by container ship, lorry and plane, and the fuel burned on those journeys adds more greenhouse gases.

Why the early stages matter

Add the stages together and the impact before use can be surprisingly large. It is like costing a school trip by the bus fare alone, ignoring the tickets, lunches and staff cover: you get a number, but not the real cost. The mining, chip-making and shipping behind a device can release more greenhouse gas than years of electricity for using it. Judging a device only by the power it draws when switched on therefore misses much of its environmental cost.

Every device that runs uses electricity. Much of it is still generated by burning fossil fuels such as gas and coal, which releases carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

Devices waste energy when left on unnecessarily. A computer on standby still draws power, and older, inefficient hardware often uses more electricity for the same job than a newer machine.

Data centres

A data centre is a building full of servers that store data and run services for customers. The services must be available whenever customers need them, so the servers, network links and backup power run almost continuously. Servers produce heat, so cooling systems use even more electricity and also use water, which makes data centres a large part of computing's energy use.

Reducing energy use

Energy-efficient hardware cuts energy use: a processor that does more work for each watt, or a monitor that uses less power at the same brightness. Power-saving settings help too, such as making a computer sleep after a few minutes of inactivity, dimming the screen, and switching off at the wall instead of leaving a device on standby.

Organisations can share efficient servers in a data centre instead of each running their own small server room, because one large, well-managed data centre can power and cool many servers more efficiently than dozens of separate rooms. Data centres can also buy renewable electricity from wind or solar farms and design the building to need less cooling, for example by arranging the racks so air flows freely between them and by capturing waste heat to warm nearby buildings.

For example, a school with 120 computers and monitors might leave them on for 4 extra hours a day. If each computer and monitor together uses 80 W, that is 120 × 80 × 4 = 38,400 Wh, or 38.4 kWh, of wasted electricity every day, so switching off at the wall after the last lesson avoids that waste.

E-waste is any electrical or electronic device that has been discarded — a games console nobody plays any more, or a monitor with a cracked screen. It is one of the fastest-growing types of waste, and much of it is never collected or recycled properly.

Discarded devices contain small amounts of toxic substances, including heavy metals, so how e-waste is dealt with decides how much harm it does:

In landfill the harm happens slowly: rain seeps through buried devices and carries dissolved toxic substances down into the groundwater, which feeds wells, streams and crops, so pollution spreads far past the tip. Burning is quicker — the plastic burns away to leave the metal behind — but the fumes are toxic to breathe and the leftover ash is contaminated.

Some e-waste is exported to developing countries, where labour is cheaper and safety rules are weaker. It is pulled apart by hand with no protective equipment, so workers come into contact with toxic substances and their health suffers. Whatever cannot be sold is dumped nearby, moving the pollution to a place with fewer safe facilities.

Binning a device also means the valuable materials inside it are lost. The metals on a circuit board had to be mined, refined and transported, causing real environmental damage; if the board ends up buried, those metals cannot be used again and fresh metal must be extracted for new devices. Proper recycling recovers them.

A youth club clearing out a cupboard finds a broken games console and a cracked monitor. Sent to landfill, the metals inside are lost and toxic substances can leak into the soil; taken to a proper recycling point, the metals are recovered and the harmful parts kept out of the ground.

E-waste is the electronic equipment that people throw away. A lot of it is produced because devices are replaced while they are still working, for three main reasons.

Upgrading to get the latest model

Many people buy a new device when the old one still does everything they need. Adverts make the newest version look better, and there is pressure to own the same things as your friends. The old device is often left in a drawer and then thrown out rather than passed on, so a machine that still works becomes waste.

For example, someone has a pair of wireless headphones they have used every day for two years. A newer pair comes out with noise cancelling and a longer battery life, and it is advertised in almost every video they watch. The old pair still works, but it is left in a bag and eventually thrown out with the rubbish.

Designed with a limited life

Some products are designed with a limited life, so they only last a certain length of time. A fitness band might have its strap moulded onto the body, so when the strap splits the whole band is thrown away instead of a cheap strap being swapped. Parts that wear out quickly, or a case that cannot be opened, mean the whole product has to be replaced. Designing products this way can keep prices low and sells more devices, but it also sends working electronics to landfill sooner than necessary.

Hard to repair or upgrade

If a device is sealed shut or needs a special tool to open, a small fault can mean buying a new one instead of fixing it. Devices that cannot be upgraded have the same problem: a games console with no spare storage slot fills up as games get bigger, so it is replaced even though nothing has broken. Building devices with replaceable parts and space to add storage would keep each one in use for longer.

E-waste is electronic equipment that has been thrown away. Reducing it means keeping devices in use for as long as possible, then recovering their materials safely, so that fewer new devices need to be made from freshly mined materials.

Reuse and repair

Reusing a device, by selling or donating it while it still works, keeping it as a backup machine, or using it for a single job such as playing music, keeps it working instead of being replaced. Buying refurbished equipment does the same: it is a working device sold on rather than scrapped. Because making a device uses a lot of raw materials and energy, every extra year of use means fewer new devices are needed.

Repairing a device when a single part fails, such as a worn cooling fan or a broken charging port, saves the rest of it from being scrapped. A repair usually costs less than a replacement and avoids the materials and energy of manufacturing a whole new product.

For example, a youth club's six games consoles start failing one by one. A local repair shop replaces the failed power supplies, so all six stay in use for three more years. When they finally give up, the club takes them to the council's e-waste collection point rather than the general skip.

Recycling properly

Once a device cannot be fixed, a proper e-waste recycling point, such as a council site or a shop take-back scheme, lets the materials be recovered and the harmful parts handled safely, so fewer new raw materials are needed. Devices left in the ordinary bin go to landfill, where substances can seep into soil and water, and informal recycling that burns parts to reach the metal releases toxic fumes.

Designed to last

Manufacturers can cut e-waste at the design stage. Devices that last longer, are easy to repair with ordinary tools, and allow upgrades such as extra memory avoid the need for a whole new machine, and using recycled materials reduces the demand for newly mined ones.

Digital technology can reduce environmental damage as well as cause it: files replace printed paper, systems run equipment only when it is needed, and sensors gather data about the natural world. Each benefit is real but limited, so it must be weighed against the harm of making, running and disposing of devices.

Less paper and less travel

Documents that were printed can be sent as files instead: a garage can email a service report, and a village hall can put its timetable online. Fewer sheets printed means fewer trees felled and less energy used at the paper mill. The saving is not complete: many people still print what they could read on screen, and digital copies sit on drives that use electricity and need cooling.

Remote working cuts travel. If a project team meets by video call, nobody drives to the meeting, so no fuel is burned and no carbon dioxide is released. Joining a class online instead of travelling to a centre does the same.

Running things more efficiently

Logistics software plans routes and loads so fewer vehicles make fewer journeys and less fuel is burned. The benefit is not automatic: if every customer expects next-day delivery, rushed half-full runs replace the tidy plan, and parcels arrive in packaging that must be manufactured and then thrown away, so the effect of deliveries overall is mixed.

Computer-controlled systems use energy only when it is needed. A smart meter shows a household what it is using, so somebody spots the heater left on and switches it off, and a sensor can slow an escalator to a crawl when nobody is riding it.

Watching and predicting

Satellites and sensors collect environmental data that nobody could gather by hand: how damp the soil is, how much pollution has leaked into a stream, or how many bats are using a cave. Computer models use that data to forecast the weather, simulate how the climate will change, and warn of hazards such as a heatwave so people can prepare.

The same evidence guides decisions: a council can compare years of animal counts to judge whether a new wildlife bridge is being used, and a government can use the figures to decide where to protect a habitat.