NOT CONTENT WITH being one of the world’s leading consumers of fossil fuels – all so that FunkyMonkey can message ManicBred003 with the important announcement 'LOL!' – the IT industry is one of the biggest polluting landfiller too.

Now, thankfully, someone with a social conscience is trying to rectify the problem.

Hooray for the US Environment Protection Agency, which is trying to make recycling of computers faster and economically viable. Along with EPCGlobal, the goal is to make it easier to identify and remove the re-useable parts.

The plan is to put RFID tags on all components. In theory, this will automate the task of removing them, and cut the electronic waste. The tags would broadcast each part's make model and history to a scanner as it entered a recycling plant.

You know the type of thing: Fujistu Overpriced Laptop. Contains 15 million NHS Patient Records. Barely used before left on a train.

"I could get the information in a split second, as opposed to digging around in the parts," Stuart Skumac, of California based SIMS Recycling told New Scientist.

HP was one of the first to sign up. It already tags some of its printers with these chips.

The question we have to ask outselves is: Why don’t they just get robots with rats brains to do the dismantling for them? µ