101 uses for an old Amstrad. Well, 1 or 2 ...

Sales of PCs for the home are booming and businesses are constantly upgrading their hardware. But what happens to all of those old machines? Milly Jenkins looks at the worthy alternatives to sticking them in a loft or a skip.

For anyone who bought a computer in the 1980s, there comes a day of reckoning - the day you finally admit that, realistically, you are never again going to use the Amstrad gathering dust in the attic. A lingering affection for your old workmate has prevented you from throwing it into a skip, as well as wishful thinking that it might still be worth something. It is hard to accept that an object once so shiny and hi-tech, not to mention expensive, could now be worthless.

A quick flick through Loot will change you mind. The demand for Amstrads is, to be blunt, non-existent. If you're lucky you might be able to sell a 286, but it may not be worth the hassle of placing ads and dealing with calls - if you get any.

As a result, most computers stay in the attic. Or, in the case of businesses, the cupboard. The Gartner Group, an IT consultancy, estimates that 65 per cent of old corporate equipment becomes "closetfill", with companies at a complete loss as to what to do with it. Gartner also estimates that, on a global scale, 31 million PCs are being "retired" every year. This will rise to 42 million in 1999.

So, sooner or later, they will finally burst out of those cupboards and when they do, the chances are they will end up in skips, then landfill. A 1995 survey found that City firms alone were already skipping 3,000 tonnes of equipment every year. What that figure is on a national scale, nobody knows.

"It's a problem that's going to get a lot worse," says Merlin Hyman of Wastebusters, a consultancy specialising in the "greening" of offices. "There are no strict guidelines and nothing to stop people chucking them out."

For the environment, this is not good news. Most PCs contain batteries with cadmium and nickel metal hydride which, if put into landfill, can pollute the groundwater. Older computers may contain harmful CFCs and heavy metals. Monitors, like processor boards, can be especially toxic and should be treated before being buried.

So what are the alternatives? Some manufacturers will take back old computers and a few offer part-exchange deals. Companies can offer them to employees at reduced prices. Or, if they have a lot of them, get them scrapped and partially recycled.

But an increasingly popular option is to give them to charity. The Charities Aid Foundation publishes a book, Waste Not, which lists organisations in need of computers, printers and faxes. The demand is high. "But don't expect them to be grateful for any old crap," warns Howard Seabrook at the Gartner Group. "If the equipment is at the end of its useful life, you could be saddling them with extra costs. Schools in particular need relatively new equipment, because what's the point of teaching kids out- of-date technology?"

The easiest way to donate equipment is via one of the dozen or so voluntary organisations which collect, refurbish and re-sell computers to charities, schools and needy individuals at dirt cheap prices. They promise to wipe all data from the hard disk, a major security concern for many companies, and will take on all liability, load their own licensed software and offer support services to the charities that buy from them.

Recycle-IT! collects equipment from households and companies all over the country. There are more than 1,000 computers piled high in its Luton warehouse, waiting to be given new homes. "It's an Aladdin's cave," says George Ruddock, the scheme's co-ordinator. "But the demand is constant." The equipment mostly goes to small charities - Citizens Advice Bureaux and tenants' associations, for example - all on very tight budgets. The basic rates are pounds 49 for a 286 and pounds 99 for a 386. They are just starting to see 486s coming in, but would like more.

"About 40 per cent of what we get doesn't work," says Ruddock. "Some we can fix, others we cannibalise for parts." The "cannibals" are all volunteers. Most arrive knowing nothing about how to strip and rebuild computers, but a few have left with enough expertise to get IT-related jobs elsewhere.

Cyber Cycle is a similar project, collecting equipment in the London area. "We encourage organisations to go for what they really need rather than what they've seen on TV," says manager Doug Robertson. Some of their donations have ended up in Bosnia and Somalia.

Both organisations send parts and computers they can't use to recycling firms who treat toxic substances and recycle any metal, plastic and glass. But the merit of recycling, some say, is debatable. Treating toxic parts before putting them into landfill is almost certainly a good thing and may soon be made compulsory by the EU. But Gartner's Howard Seabrook says that recycling may not always be as green as it looks: "It may just be crushed down, put in a big bin and left on some trading estate in Slough." He points to Germany where subsidised recycling schemes are producing warehouses full of recycled plastic which never gets reused.

It may be some time before manufacturers come up with "green" computers, built with reusable parts, or perhaps even biodegradable ones. In the meantime, reuse is the most environmentally friendly option. But Bytes Twice, an association for organisations like Recycle-IT! and Cyber Cycle, stresses that although some projects will recycle redundant computers for you, what they really need are computers which, at the very least, run Windows. "If it's an individual household with an old Amstrad in the attic," says April Groves of Bytes Twice, "then the tip is still the only place for it."

Bytes Twice (0171 248 0242) can put you in touch with your nearest reuse project. More information from the Charities Aid Foundation (01732 520 000), Recycle-IT! (01582 492 436) and Cyber Cycle (0171 582 8800).