Consumers willing to shell out extra cash for greener PCs

Consumers willing to shell out extra cash for greener PCs
A new survey has found that consumers are willing to pay up to $200 extra for having more environment friendly computers. The survey was conducted by Ipsos MORI and released by Greenpeace.

The release of the survey coincides with an announcement by PC maker Dell that it will reduce the number of toxic chemicals in its machines. The survey also found that people feel companies should take more responsibility in trying to reduce the toxicity in their systems. E-waste has fast become a huge problem with 30 million PCs being dumped each year in the United States alone.

The survey was conducted in nine countries and found that people were willing to spend $117 and in China as much as $197 to make sure that their computers were green. Also the short life of computer equipment was leading to a pile of computer waste mainly in India and China. Electronic waste, or e-waste contains heavy metals like lead and mercury and in landfill sites 70 percent of these chemicals are released from computer equipment alone.

However Greenpeace welcomed Dell's decision to go green, "Consumers not only want greener PCs but they are willing to pay extra for them. Dell's decision to remove these harmful chemicals reflects a move within the electronics industry in the right direction to become cleaner," said Greenpeace International spokeswoman Zeina al-Hajj. Dell has pledged to remove all brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in its products from its computers by 2009.