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Green Government

Boost for PC recycling in Philippines’ schools

By Johanna Morden | 18 February 2011

The second wave of the PC Recycling Initiative of the Philippines’ Commission on Information and Communications Technology is set to hit public high schools in the country this April.

As part of the initiative, two school personnel from each of the 210 public high schools in 21 provinces across the Philippines will undergo training on maximising the usage of their existing computer laboratories, and recycling parts from their outmoded and damaged computer units.

The upcoming opening of the next leg of the initiative was fuelled by the success of its initial launch in April of 2010.

Antonette Torres, Program Manager of the PC Recycling Initiative, has put the number of recycled computer units resulting from last year’s program at over 500.

This has allowed the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) to save at least P5 million (US$115,195) in unused equipment and replacement costs.

“But the most important thing to note here is that we are reducing the amount of electronic waste,” said Torres.

Torres noted that environmental preservation is the key agenda of the PC Recycling Initiative to address the negative effects of the changing world climate.

“We in the ICT sector should be responsible for our own wastes,” she said.

Under the initiative, the obsolete or damaged ICT facilities of selected public high schools will be disassembled to salvage usable parts. These will be used as replacement for defective parts of other computers units.

The nonworking parts will be converted into creative or instructional materials for schoolrooms.

This year, the training portion of the PC Recycling Initiative will be focusing more on actual disassembly, diagnosis and repair, rather than conceptual theories.

“The PC Recycling project serves to enhance the long term viability of recipient computers given by other computerization programs implemented in the country,” said Torres.

The initiative will be implemented by CICT, in conjunction with its partner public universities and colleges found in the 21 provinces covered.

Plans are in the works at the CICT to build an online database of reusable computer parts that public high schools’ computer laboratory managers could use to find needed parts.

“After April, we are hopeful that we can already pilot its initial implementation,” said Torres.

The PC Recycling Initiative falls under the iSchools project of the CICT, which promotes the use of ICT in basic education.

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