A computer made of materials that will decompose naturally with time is being developed in Dublin.
The recyclable wooden computer is built from waste products from the lumber and pulp industry and is due to come to the market next year.
This computer has a wooden frame, wooden mouse, wooden hard drive.
More and more childcare facilities are now opting for computers with wooden parts. Cian Delaney and Daniel O'Brien are busy creating a work of art on a computer in their creche. Mary Ann MacCormack of Giraffe Childcare and Early Learning describes them as eco-friendly, renewable, reusable, and safe for children.
Giraffe sources its computers from a company called MicroPro based in Rathfarnham in South Dublin, a long proponent of wooden computers.
MicroPro is now in the process of developing a computer that is fully biodegradable which over time will dissolve back into nature. They hope to bring this new innovation to the market next year with the support of Enterprise Ireland and the European Union.
This Irish company has built a fully biodegradable computer.
The waste wood product is treated and used for manufacturing computer products.
At the end of its life, you can bury it in your back garden.
Eventually even the product biodegrades into a peat moss type substance and then back into the soil.
These eco-friendly machines come at a price which is between ten and twenty per cent more than other computers. However, a wooden computer has a longer lifespan and uses less energy.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 20 November 2008. The reporter is Barry Cummins.
