EcoATM pays for used gadgets

The self-serve e-cycling station electronically inspects phones, assigns them real-time secondary market value, and provides in-store payment, if the handset still has any monetary worth, reports CNET News.

If not, consumers can choose to assign the device to the recycle bin, and then it's on its way to getting recycled or refurbished. The kiosk is the first such station to be installed by San Diego-based start-up EcoATM, and it's serving as a test case in advance of a scheduled larger roll-out.

The company, formerly called ReMobile, declared the Nebraska machine an immediate success when it went into operation on 21 September, both in the number of recycled devices collected and the trade-up purchases.

Microsoft's chief environmental strategist, Rob Bernard, says Microsoft's newest operating system will come with environmentally friendly features baked into its infrastructure, creating greater energy efficiency than Windows Vista or Windows X, states eWeek.

"Windows 7 is the first [Microsoft] operating system to operate at this granular level of control over energy-saving options,” says Bernard. For example, "the server and client interaction allows IT [departments] to run a power-efficiency diagnostics chart" and then use that information to adjust PCs for optimum operation.

IT administrators can use Group Policy, Windows Management Instrumentation and Powercfg.exe, a command-line power management utility, to centrally manage power settings.

Computer and server vendors are working to make their products increasingly energy efficient and environmentally benign, in order to tap into a market for green computing equipment that will grow from about $47 billion in 2009 to $223.7 billion in 2013, according to research by NextGen Research, says DigiTimes.

According to the research firm's definition, a green computer or server is one that is built from eco-friendly materials, features low power consumption and computer power management capabilities, has fewer and smaller component parts, and generates less heat than previous models.

A wholly green product would be one packaged in recyclable materials and, at the end of its useful life cycle, can be traded in to the manufacturer or to another organisation that will reuse or recycle the equipment, rather than dumping it into a landfill.