Sustainability: Technology

Here’s an astounding statistic: The annual volume of PCs disposed of in Japan each year is 6000 tons or 3 mission units.

In order to realize a more sustainable society, the ethical PC "ZERO PC" (website in Japanese) was created to recycle discarded PCs and even recycle all unusable parts.

Most computers use resources called “conflict minerals”. Conflict Minerals refer to raw materials or minerals that come from a particular part of the world where conflict is occurring and affects the mining and trading of those materials. “ZERO PC” aims to contribute to conflict resolution by circulating rather than fighting over scarce resources.

How does it work?

If the computer still works or can be repaired, they can change the inside to new parts and resell them. The old parts that were changed can be recycled. These refurbished computers can also be shipped abroad for countries in need.

If the computer doesn’t work or cannot be repaired, they are recycled into metal resources such as iron, copper, aluminum, and rare metals.

How about purchasing these ethically made refurbished computers or get your old computers collected so that they can be refurbished or recycled properly?