Waste Watch: Reuse, recycle, repair

People have been advised to have an environmentally-friendly approach to their IT usage.

Waste Watch has highlighted the fact that laptops are becoming more popular and cheaper as a result.

Caroline Laitner, senior consultant at the environmental organisation, claimed that while the pace of technological advancement should not be slowed, consumers should be responsible for the way they utilise it.

Ms Laitner commented that people should make the most of any product and obtain upgrades "make sense cost-wise".

However, she emphasised the need to be less wasteful.

She said: "All that we can suggest is that people try to buy something that has some sort of lifespan and then reuse, recycle or repair whatever they are using."

Ms Laitner added that although people may want the latest model, they should acknowledge the fact that the items they have still have a lifespan and can be reused by others.

Taiwan's shopping channel ETTV Shopping sold one Eee PC - a new Asus computer launched last October - every six seconds on the day that it was launched.