Artificial Afterlife

Less than three years after I purchased my behemoth 21-inch, 75-pound computer monitor, it fizzled out. Because prices were falling, I could have bought a new monitor for about the $500 repairs would have cost. Instead, I made do with a small cast-off from work, and let my dead giant serve as a $2,000 cat perch. Aware that computers were full of toxic materials such as lead, mercury, beryllium, chromium and cadmium, I didn't want the contents of my decaying monitor to leach into the environment from a landfill.

A look into recycling gave me even more to worry about: According to a 2002 report by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and others, 50 to 80 percent of the electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. are shipped to China, India and Pakistan, where the lack of regulations has resulted in salvage workers being exposed to poisonous chemicals and piles of scavenged parts release toxins that threaten water supplies.

Also of concern, Canadian studies in 2001 showed that penta-BDEs, a form of brominated diphenyl ether (BDE) fire retardants, are showing up in human breast milk in North America at levels that have increased by 15 times over the last ten years, according to John Jake Ryan, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at Health Canada. Penta-BDEs make up as much as 25 percent of American polyurethane foam, used in mattresses and upholstered furniture. Although they're not used in computers, related fire retardants known as deca-BDEs are. "There's concern about the possibility of deca-BDEs breaking down into penta-BDEs in landfills," says Linda Birnbaum, director of the Experimental Toxicology Division of the U.S. Environmental Pro- tection Agency. "In research on mice and rats, penta-BDEs have been shown to damage the liver, harm developing brains in ways similar to PCBs and lower thyroid hormone production," Birnbaum says. Although their effect on humans is still unclear, she adds, penta-BDEs collect in body fats, where they accumulate over time.

The good news is that NEC has recently released its Energy Star-compliant Powermate eco with a casing made from recyclable plastic and a lead-free motherboard. But what can we do with old computers besides turning them into objects of melancholy contemplation? (See the sidebar for some suggestions.)

In the end, I sent my monitor to Per Scholas in the Bronx, New York, which has a mechanical de-manufacturing facility to avoid exposing workers to toxins while separating metals, glass and plastics. My cats, of course, are demanding a new perch.