Oct. 16, 2007 Businesses should treat electronics recycling as a last resort, opting instead to purchase machines with reusable, easily replaceable parts, according to Simon Dury of Envirowise, a U.K. government program that advises businesses on green issues.

BusinessWeek quotes Dury as saying, ""Recycling is stupid. It should be the second to last thing which we do before throwing away something."

Speaking at a Green Computing in Practice roundtable, Dury urged businesses to lighten their footprint by donating their outdated but fully functional IT equipment to developing countries, where the machines can enjoy a second life. He pointed out that a large part electronics' environmental impact occurs during the design and manufacture stages, noting that just 63% of materials used to make a device aren't used in the final product.

The EU's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, scheduled to take effect later this year, aims to encourage companies to recycle and reuse their old IT equipment.