Ethics of Discarded Computers. Discussed Is John

¶ … ethics of discarded computers. Discussed is John Stuart Mill's philosophy. Response scenario: I have just worn out my fourth computer. I love a high speed computer, but I feel guilty when I buy a new one. A new computer is my top priority for a purchase, and I begin saving for a new one almost as soon as I have purchased one. I know that many people are just like me. There must be junkyards full of computers.

Why is there such a waste with hardware and software in the computer industry. Should I try to get by with less? Two sources are used. APA. Computer Junkyards Computer trash is certainly becoming a problem for societies everywhere. Some people try to make use of them by creating art, but that is a miniscule use of the millions of old computers one can see set out for the garbage men or dumped behind computer shops. Society is creating computer junkyards.

And it is developing in to a very serious problem for the environment. John Stuart Mill would ask to see proof that this was an environmental issue. Thus, accordingly, there is proof. These wonderful contraptions we call personal computers are loaded with toxic materials that are as dangerous to dispose of as the messy pile of paint cans and solvents in our garages.

Businesses and home users put off getting rid of their old systems, no so much for environmental reasons, but rather they hope there might be a use for them or perhaps a market (Bergstrom 2000). By the year 2004, more than 315 million computers are estimated to become obsolete. As storage space runs out, many companies and homeowners alike are beginning to dump their electronic trash (Bergstrom 2000). This alarms environmentalists. According to Jeremiah Baumann, U.S.

Public Interest Research Group, "Computers are filled with all sorts of toxic chemicals - everything from a huge amount of lead in the monitors to mercury and cadmium in other parts of the computers themselves"(Bergstrom 2000). The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition estimates that "among other hazardous wastes, 315 million computers would contain 1.2 billion pounds of lead, 2 million pounds of cadmium, 400,000 pounds of mercury and 1.2 million pounds of hexavalent chromium" (Bergstrom 2000).

Although recycling firms are starting up across the country, one study contends that they only handled roughly six percent as many computers as manufacturers shipped in 1998, compared to a seventy percent rate for other major appliances such as washing machines, air conditioners and refrigerators (Bergstrom 2000). Where do all of these recycled computers go? At least 80% of computers, monitors, and printers collected for recycling in the United States end up in China, India and Pakistan.

Once transported, workers sift through the waste of hardware bearing the names of Compaq, Apple and IBM (Fackler 2002). Some components are melted to extract precious metals such as gold and platinum. The rest is burned or dumped beside rice paddies and waterways. Mercury, lead, dioxins and other toxic chemicals are released into the air and water (Fackler 2002). The fish disappeared from a local river in Guiyu, China in the early 1990's, shortly after the first truckloads of computer waste arrived.

The chemicals have poisoned the wells to such an extent that water must now be trucked in (Fackler 2002). Moreover, the odor of burning plastic is so strong that classes at a nearby school are forced to close at times. Sixty percent of students and as many teachers cough and have breathing problems (Fackler 2002). Villagers are becoming richer, however it is at the health of their neighbors as well as their own. This region now has an estimated 2,500 computer waste businesses.

The majority of them are family owned, employing as many as 100,000 people, many of them are migrants from other parts of China. Where once they picked through pig bones and duck feathers, now they deal in integrated circuits, e-trash (Fackler 2002). Most villagers welcome the computer trash, even though it does poison their water and creates an unnatural, unsightly landscape of circuit boards and hard drives. The salvage businesses have meant employment for rural areas (Fackler 2002).

The National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center has indicated that recycling firms handled 275 million pounds of old computers in 1998. This accounts for only 11% of an estimated 20 million central processing units that became obsolete that year (Fackler 2002). Mill's theory that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its usefulness in bringing about the most happiness of all those affected by it, is somewhat taxed on this issue. However, this form of consequentialism can certainly be applied.

Given the information above, it is all too apparent that man has again created a mess he can't clean up. Does man never learn from history, from past mistakes. We have yet another dilemma on our hands. What to do? Stop making new computers? That is hardly an option, given the industry new product growth and the insatiable appetite of the public to own the newest and fastest computer available. According to Mill, our consequence should be our.