Computer factories, along with other electronics assembly plants, follow a logical layout. Components and materials come in and finished goods go out.
But at the IBM facility at Mainz, in Germany, that logic is reversed. In fact, the plant is part of a "reverse logistics" operation. Instead of making computers and delivering them, it collects them and breaks them down into components, or refurbishes them to be resold.
Where the machine is not suitable to be reused and its components are beyond their useful lifespan, workers at the plant break them down further, into plastics and base metals. These materials are then either sold on in the commodity markets - metals such as copper are valuable - or are sent to specialist companies for disposal.
But managers at the facility, operated by the reverse logistics company Geodis for IBM's Global Asset Recovery Services (GARS) arm, are proud of just how little of what they handle ends up as landfill. Of the 61.8 tonnes of material handled in 2004, just 1.1 tonnes went to landfill sites. The rest was resold, either as complete machines or as useable components and spares.
Working computers taken in at Mainz are refurbished and sold on, mostly through brokers. Many of the machines handled by GARS go to eastern Europe and other price-sensitive markets. Globally, IBM GARS handles 991,0000 PCs a year, 26,000 low-end servers and 11,000 storage systems. About a quarter of this is handled by the unit's three European sites, the largest of which is at Mainz. The plant handles both IBM and non-IBM equipment.
As much as 80 per cent of the equipment handled by GARS is refurbished. But not all companies might want their machines sold on, so IBM will dismantle them, if that is what a client requires. And the company goes to some lengths to protect customers' data.
Perhaps the most extreme - but also the most effective - measure consists of a group of workers stationed along a workbench equipped with electric drills.
These workers take hard drives that have been removed from customers' laptops and PCs, and drill a strategically positioned hole through them.
This, management stresses, renders the drive useless and makes it impossible to recover data. IBM then dismantles the drive, and recycles its components.
