Agencies sign IT equipment recycling pact
- By Wilson P. Dizard III
- Nov 19, 2004
Michael J. Bechetti
Eleven agencies have pledged to use environmentally sustainable methods of managing federal IT assets.
The Office of the Federal Environmental Executive's Task Force on Waste Prevention and Recycling in the White House announced the green computing pact last week.
The eleven agencies'which represent about $50 billion, or 83 percent, of the government's annual IT spending'signed a memorandum of agreement during a White House ceremony.
The agencies are the Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice, Transportation and Veterans Affairs departments, the Environmental Protection Agency and General Services Administration.
The signatories pledged to increase demand for energy efficient and environmentally sustainable IT hardware, to promote the market for reuse and recycling of obsolete equipment and to coordinate their work with other public and private environmental projects.
'With most computers having a three-year lifecycle, the federal government discards about 10,000 computers a week,' the White House office said in a statement. 'The government represents 7 percent of the world's demand for computers.'
To view the memorandum, go to
www.ofee.gov.