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We are pleased to inform member organisations that they can now recycle equipment at no cost simply by being selective in their choice of vendors. Dell Australia now offer free recycling of equipment being replaced when purchasing new equipment. See the Dell Recycling web site for more information.

The news gets even better now that CASE members can obtain further discounts from Dell by forwarding orders through our account manager. Contact us directly if you would like more information regarding this. It's just another example of how we all benefit from working together.

Over the years it's become very popular to refurbish outdated computer equipment.  Organisations providing these services use the term 'green' to indicate that these activities help to reduce the impact computer hardware has on the environment. But are these initiatives really delivering?

Is it really a good idea to donate old computers to community groups and schools as we are often times advised? Do we really want those delivering critical community services and our children to be disadvantaged with slow and insecure technology? Consider some of the issues with outdated computers:

• Outdated equipment can be very expensive to maintain which increases the true cost of ownership
  
• Older equipment often times cannot run current operating systems/software and therefore is not secure
• It can easily cost more to refurbish an older machine than to purchase new equipment
• The eventual cost of recycling the equipment is typically passed on to those who can least afford to do so.

Research is beginning to show that a better approach is to build the price of appropriate recycling of the equipment at the end of it's life, into the cost of the purchase. It's like paying a bit more for energy produced in a manner that has less impact on the environment. But it turns out you don't even have to pay extra for recycling when dealing with some equipment manufacturers.