The findings, published by researchers at the United Nations University in Tokyo, has found that computers are very energy and materials intensive to produce. The authors warn that fossil fuels are linked to climate change and that the use of chemicals can affect the health of microchip production workers.
In fact, the weight of fossil fuels required to make one desktop amounts to more than ten times the computer's weight – by comparison, the quantity used to make a car or a fridge is roughly equal to the weight of the finished product.
The EU's Waste Electrical Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, due to be implemented in all Member States by August 2004, is also assessed in the study.
The Directive applies to a wide range of products, including IT, telecoms, TV, video, hi-fi, electrical and electronic tools, toys, sports equipment and medical devices.
The WEEE Directive sets criteria for the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment. It makes "producers" responsible for financing most of these activities. Producers include manufacturers and resellers of equipment purchased outside the EU.
But the UN report claims that the effectiveness of the Directive will depend on how the legislation is actually implemented.
Recycling managed by a monopolist concern, whose main interest is meeting simple recycling targets for a fixed fee, could be an expensive system with little environmental benefit, says the study. But a multilateral concern aimed at maximising profit and reuse across the life cycle presents a more promising picture.
The report also stresses that the attitude taken by consumers will have a big effect on the environment. At present most old computers end up in landfill sites, when in fact many of these are still useful.
The authors of the report, UN University's Ruediger Kuehr and Eric Williams, call for education programmes and incentives to encourage consumers to think about using second-hand PCs or to hand their old PC over for resale or refurbishment.