Dell boasts of lead in recycling

The UK head of Dell has claimed that the PC and peripherals manufacturer is setting an example for others to follow by responsibly introducing recycling schemes for end-of-life kit - though he admitted customers are the ones picking up the bill.

He also hit out at rival companies whose pricing model for printers and cartridges are, he said, outdated and environmentally unfriendly.

The ticking environmental time bomb of old monitors, PCs and printers finding their way into landfill inspired the EU to draft the long-delayed Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) but Josh Claman, UK head of Dell, said his company is already going well beyond the EU's green guidelines.

Claman said some of what Dell is doing "is in line with the WEEE Directive but not all of it", claiming successful recycling, reconditioning and donation programmes and tight restrictions on how much kit ends up in landfill actually go above and beyond the call of duty.

However, Claman was in no doubt who will foot the bill. "It absolutely will be passed on to the consumer," he told silicon.com but added that Dell is trying to educate customers currently as to why they should accept these extra charges.

While enterprise customers buying, replacing and returning volume orders are easier to get on-side with such projects, the consumer market is not so easy to crack, said Claman.

He said: "Last year we took back 100,000 units and most of those were in the enterprise space. There is an awareness issue which we have to keep hammering away on in the consumer space."

And on the subject of hammering away - with many companies keen to destroy hard drives before handing them over - Claman said every possible measure is taken to ensure data is destroyed before kit is reconditioned.

He added: "In some cases we wipe the disks and then crush them but if we take kit back from a bank then they tend to have their own standards."

However, where kit is reconditioned for use in schools or the developing world, Claman said data is wiped to exacting military standards.

And he boasted that a growing percentage of Dell kit is finding a home elsewhere, stating the manufacturer is meeting its own goals which demand less than two per cent of reclaimed kit ends up in landfill. During 2006 the company intends to double the amount of kit it recycles and also expects to the grow the amount donated to charity from current low levels.

However, he was critical of rival companies, particularly those in the printer business, which is not beholden to the WEEE Directive and whose pricing models almost encourage environmentally unfriendly practices.

He was referring to the fact that in some instances it is cheaper to buy a new printer, with cartridges included, than to shell out just for the cartridges.

He said: "We've heard of people taking out the cartridges and just throwing away the printer."