The digital age's promise to make life easier comes at a cost, with the road to the promise land littered with obsolete electronic equipment - dead monitors, outdated PCs and printers, etc. No ordinary stuff, this is high-tech litter, with harmful chemicals that pose environmental hazards, says an article in Arizona Water Resource, a publication produced by the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona. The chemicals and metal by-products of discarded computers can end up contaminating soil, ground water and air.
This is a growing problem. Consider the following: Studies show that in the United States in 1998, about 21 million personal computers became obsolete, with only 2.3 million, or 11 percent, recycled. Experts predict that technological changes will likely result in another 315 million PCs becoming obsolete by 2004.