[Tech] Un PC 'assorbe' 1800 Kg. di materie prime

Secondo uno studio dell'Università delle Nazioni Unite, la fabbricazione di un PC desktop e del relativo monitor (un CRT da 17") assorbe una quantità di materie prime equivalente a circa 1.800 Kg. - il peso di una automobile medio-grande:

A United Nations University study into the environmental impact of personal computers, due to be published later Monday, has found that around 1.8 tons of raw material are required to manufacture the average desktop PC and monitor and that extending a machine's operational life through re-use holds a much greater potential for energy saving that recycling.

In particolare, un PC e il relativo monitor CRT "costano" all'ambiente 240 Kg. di combustibili fossili, 22 Kg. di sostanze chimiche e 1.500 Kg. di acqua.



Il consiglio dei ricercatori ONU è quello di evitare, fin quando possibile, di cambiare il proprio PC: molto meglio upgradarlo, eventualmente, allungando così il suo ciclo vitale e riducendo l'impatto dei sistemi informatici sull'ambiente:

By far the best way to minimize impact on the environment from a personal computer is to extend its useful life, said Eric Williams, a researcher at the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo and one of the report's co-authors.



Users should think carefully about whether they really need a new computer, if upgrading their existing computer could serve the same purpose, he said. Actions such as delaying replacement and upgrading the memory or storage space or, if the machine is replaced, donating the old computer so that it may continue to be used offer potential energy savings of between five and 20 times those gained by recycling.



This is because so much of the energy required to manufacture a personal computer is used to make high-tech components like semiconductors and those components are destroyed in the recycling process to collect a small amount of raw materials. In an earlier study published in late 2002, Williams concluded that 1.7 kilograms of fossil fuels and chemicals and 32 kilograms of water are used to produce a single 2-gram 32M-byte DRAM (dynamic RAM) memory chip.

Fonte: InfoWorld.