Effectiveness of the Green IT movement suffers from a massive oversight by failing to address the massive amounts of electronic waste.

“The IT industry is already energy-neutral in terms of its consumption and savings, but there is still no credible scenario for safely managing the global production and disposal of literally billions of personal computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices,” writes David Moschella, research director for CSC’s Leading Edge Forum.

Writing in Computerworld, he says the reasons for focusing on IT energy conservation are obvious, ranging from global warming and the popularity of new gear that saves energy, to the difficulty of extracting toxic substances from retired electronic products and the public’s ignorance of the problem. “Many people simply don’t realize there is anything wrong with throwing out old IT products in their everyday bagged trash,” he writes.

“For these reasons, much of the IT community has turned a blind eye toward some truly appalling global practices and conditions, with the developing world too often used as an e-waste dumping ground, often harming the poorest of nations and people,” he contends. “This problem is only getting worse, as the number of devices built, sold and thrown away rapidly increases.”

“This should be the number one green IT priority for the next few years,” Moschella continues. “Too much time has been wasted already.”