Smartphones, laptops, tablets and other tech gadgets are the world’s fastest growing waste stream as consumers toss away their old electronic goods and update to the latest versions. An estimated 45 million tons of old computers and gadgets were thrown away worldwide in 2016, an 8% rise from 2014, according to a UN estimateOpens a new window . Some of the appliances are sent to recycling plants where they are stripped down for their parts and elements – cobalt and lithium from batteries, gold, copper, silver and platinum from cameras and circuit boards. According to one estimate, there is 12 times more gold in a ton of e-wasteOpens a new window than in a ton of gold ore. But many gizmos are thrown straight into the trash.
Governments are looking to address the growing mountains of e-waste. SwedenOpens a new window introduced a scheme to cut VAT on repairs for items including white goods and clothes in a bid to encourage more reuse and recycling. Now a new reportOpens a new window from London’s Tech City body calls on the UK Government to consider tax breaks on repairing electronic gadgets.
The growing piles of unwanted devices heading for landfills are tarnishing the tech industry’s reputation, making it synonymous with a throw-away consumer culture that cares little for sustainability. Since a news report in 2009 (apparently incorrectOpens a new window ) that two Google searches use the same energy as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, the cloud has also been criticised by green groups as a massive and irresponsible user of electricity, contributing to global warming with huge carbon emissions.
These concerns are playing into the Silicon Valley “techlash,†a widespread counterblast to the activities of the tech giants, as the narrative turns from technological utopianism to fear and mistrust. From data privacy and the robotic jobs apocalypse to tax avoidance and platform monopolies, the tech industry is under scrutiny on a wide range of fronts. Alongside these issues, worries about technology’s contribution to pollution, waste and carbon emissions are surging.
In the drive to rescue its reputation, the tech industry is extolling the benefits it brings and showing how tech companies are responsible social and environmental citizens.
A bright new future beckons for people, the planet and profits through the fourth industrial revolution, argue the technology optimists. Bringing together Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT), the next tech wave will promote sustainability, recycling and the sharing of resources. Moving to a hyper-connected world of renting and sharing rather than ownership will cut down on waste and lead to greater equality and fairness. The sharing economy puts to use dormant resources – such as a spare room in a flat for Airbnb or Uber Pool’s shared ride in a taxi. People will not own cars, but hire autonomous vehicles for each ride, leading to fewer cars on the roads and less wasted energy.
Under this rosy scenario, the IoT will hugely reduce product lifecycles and improve efficiency. IoT enables predictive maintenance, where sensors in machines from dish washers to production lines indicate when a malfunction is likely so it can be fixed before breaking down. This will lengthen the replacement cycle of gadgets and plant machinery.
While much of this lies in the future, the tech giants today are looking to boost the circular economy, which prioritizes recycling, repair and the reuse of goods. This aims to replace the linear economy, where natural resources are extracted from the earth, turned into products which are sold, used and thrown away as new products are consumed. Circular economies short circuit this process and keep re-using resources for as long as possible.
Many big tech players are converts to the circular economy, with Apple, Google, Cisco and Microsoft partnering with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Created by the round-the-world yachtswoman who says she came to understand the need to preserve the earth’s limited resources after sailing around the globe, the foundation promotes the circular economy and sustainability.
For its part, Apple gets its stores to prioritise recycling old devices. And it has unveiled LiamOpens a new window , a robot which deconstructs old iPhones and removes and separates all the parts and pieces so they can be repurposed.
Google has worked with the Foundation since 2015 to create circular practicesOpens a new window in its 14 data centres around the world. These server farms are material intensive, full of servers, drives, routers and other components. One initiative at Google involves repairing servers with parts taken from old servers – in 2016, a fifth of the components were refurbished. There is also a programme of stripping decommissioned servers into separate components such as motherboards, CPUs and hard drives which are then sold on in the secondary market. Microsoft joined the foundation in October 2017 and has committed to achieve 100% carbon neutrality and to help its customers create their own circular economies.
Meanwhile, Amazon boasts that it is recycling energy from a data centre to power a new building in Seattle.
As pressure builds on the tech giants to show that they are net contributors to public and planetary well-being rather than voracious extractors of value, they are increasingly looking to build their reputations in sustainability and circularity.
Their success will be measured by the decreasing height of gadget mountains at landfill sites and the rising use of renewable energy sources to power their data centres. Governments are ready to legislate and green groups are scrutinizing their activities closely. When it comes to the circular economy, the tech giants have to square the circle.