Going green with your PC

As we add more and more computers to our homes, with networks, Nas (network-attached storage) devices, streaming multimedia and other gadgets, the amount of power that’s used adds up.

Then there are the consumables; far from the paperless office, many computer users generate more waste paper than ever before, and of course plastic and metal and chemicals from toner and ink supplies too. Is it worth replacing equipment with ‘greener’ alternatives, and how do you judge that anyway?

The good news is that, whether your concern is about the bottom line on your electricity bill, or the broader effects on the environment, you can make a difference. And you don’t have to drastically change the way you use your computer, replace costly equipment, or take a step back from the information age.

Going green
Climate change is a reality. Most people now realise that, although the academic arguments about the causes won’t be resolved any time soon. Thanks to publicity increasing our awareness, including films such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, more of us are trying to think about how we can do our bit to help curb emissions and use energy more efficiently.

It’s important to realise that it’s not just about climate change, it’s also about sustainability – making the best use of the finite resources our planet has to offer.

Lots of people do the obvious things first – using local recycling facilities, sorting rubbish, switching to low-energy light bulbs, walking or taking public transport instead of using the car, or remembering to turn the TV off instead of just pressing the standby button.

You almost certainly have other ways that you can help too, since you’ll probably have at least one computer – and often many more – at home.

You may remember to turn off the television set, but do you do the same with your computer? Even if you do, recent research shows that among younger people, the computer will be used as a source of entertainment more than the TV. In short, power use by computers is increasing, and with it the potential contribution towards emissions of greenhouse gases.

It’s not just electricity consumed by our PCs that is an issue. Most people have a printer as well – and a quick look at most ink cartridges is all it takes to see that they’re more plastic and metal than ink. You can just throw empty ones away, but it’s far better to ensure they’re recycled, and preferably by a specialist, rather than just tossed in the local council recycling bin with your empty cereal packets.

Re-use and recycle
The key to green computing, as with other areas of life, is to reduce, re-use and recycle. We’ll look later at ways you can reduce consumption, but first it’s worth looking at what happens when you’ve finished with your PC.

As you’ll know if you read our recent article ‘Our PCs, our planet’, computers contain a number of parts and chemicals that can be dangerous to both people and the environment, and it’s important to make sure that they’re disposed of properly. That means ensuring if you’re just throwing away an old system, you take it to a suitable recycling point.

A recent survey in our sister magazine Computeractive suggests that’s what most people do – but seven per cent of users still put their old computers out with other household waste.

Remember that, as some campaigning groups have discovered, when you hand over a computer for recycling, not all of it may be done in an environmentally friendly way, so don’t be afraid to ask how your old equipment will be disposed of. We listed some recycling and redistribution organisations for your old PC in the article mentioned above.

If your PC is in reasonable condition, it can still be used for web browsing, email and basic tasks, even though it’s not up to scratch for the latest games or editing tasks – and around 60 per cent of the Computeractive readers surveyed passed their old systems on to friends or relatives, helping to prolong the life of the PC. And you can also, of course, re-use PCs yourself as network file servers, music servers or mail servers on a home network.

But while re-using a computer may be a sound thing to do from the point of view of recycling, remember that you have to balance that against the power use of an older, less efficient system too – something that we’ll consider in more detail later.

Consumables are the area where you can make most use of recyling; ensuring that old paper printouts are recycled is a good first step, especially when we so often print out multiple copies of a document, just because of a simple error, such as a misplaced comma.

You should try to reduce paper usage by proofing on screen when you can, and look for options in printer drivers that will do things such as print two or more pages side by side on a single sheet of A4 (known as ‘n-up’ printing); it may not be OK for the finished document, but it’ll help save paper when you’re proofing.

And if you’re in the market for a new printer, why not consider one that can do duplex printing, using both sides of a sheet of paper, without having to reload manually? It’s a common feature in business printers, but less so in domestic ones.

You can buy recycled paper, of course, and when you change the toner or ink cartridges, use the manufacturer’s recycling scheme, if there is one, or save the empties and drop them in the recycling bins that can be found at many office suppliers.

Don’t forget that many printers offer an ‘Eco’ or ‘Draft’ mode that will use less toner or ink, and should be suitable for many day-to-day printouts. Laser printer owners will often benefit from removing a toner cartridge that is being flagged as ‘low toner’ and rocking it from side to side. It’s not always effective, but it can eke out the remaining toner for a few dozen more pages.

Finally, consider using rewritable media for your backups, whether CD or DVD; unless you’re planning to keep a complete audit trail, rewritable discs will allow you to cycle through a few backup sets, instead of creating a pile of old discs that are hard to recycle effectively – and with fewer discs to keep track of, it’s easier to secure data too.