Here is an interesting story with great pictures, Where Old Computers Go To Die from PSFK. It reports that the old Commodore 64 or Apple IIC most likely wind up in a landfill somewhere (unless they’re collecting dust in your parents’ attic) still carrying a bevy of toxic materials like mercury, cadmium and lead to their graves. However, Western countries are increasingly exporting this problem to places like India.
This is the subject of a photography project by artist Sophie Gerrard titled E-Wasteland. Gerrard writes that “20 – 50 million tons of electronic waste, known as “e-waste” is generated annually worldwide.” When I got my Mac, I keep the PC so I could access to a Windows machine if needed.
Those new “green” light bulbs also have mercury and may cause more problems than they cure.
Post Script: I am getting a number of comments to this on Facebook. One is the need to make sure you erase all you data however you dispose of you computer. See When You Need to be Absolutely Certain Your Data is Really Gone.
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