Tech Coalition Backs Electricity Conservation

A coalition led by Google and Intel and including Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Hitachi, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Sun and Yahoo, is backing a plan to make computers and servers more energy efficient. The plan aims to cut the amount of electricity computers use by one-half by making them more energy efficient. Currently, most computers lose about one-half of the power it uses and servers lose about one-third.

It is expected that making them more efficient will raise prices slightly, but save consumers more on their electricity bill.

The Good and Bad of Electronics Recycling

This article speaks of HP and Dell's efforts to recycle as much of their products as possible. It also mentions how a great deal of computers returned for recycling (not from Dell or HP) are sent overseas and dismantled by workers there, exposing these workers to hazardous materials and polluting nearby soil.

While the article also mentions how some activist groups are critical of the level of recycling that goes on, it seems to me that the trend is in favor of the levels of recycling continuing to increase.

What is needed, it seems, is the levels of nonhazardous materials in electronics to continue to increase.