BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: SEPTEMBER 18, 2000 ISSUE

Motherboards Get a Second Childhood

Your Commodore 64 may be obsolete, but many of the materials used to make it aren't. As much as 95% of the parts and materials in junked PCs could be recovered and recycled. But only a small fraction of discarded PCs get rescued before being buried in landfills. The waste is huge and growing: 20 million computers were trashed by Americans in 1998, and that number could triple by 2005.

The main reason recyclers don't target computers more aggressively is that many of the parts are attached to circuit boards with epoxy adhesives that are well-nigh indestructible. But a new formulation could soon make it much easier to mine the gold in high-tech waste. Researchers at Cornell University and the State University of New York at Binghamton have developed a new epoxy that essentially dissolves in an industrial solvent at 190 degrees C. Dubbed Alpha-Terp, the new substance should make it simple to detach parts without damage after a computer is turned off for the last time. ''The only other way to break an epoxy's grip is to smash it with a hammer, and that's kind of tough on those delicate components,'' says John Jir-Shyr Chen, a Cornell graduate student in materials science. He delivered a report on the new fail-on-demand adhesive at the late-August meeting of the American Chemical Society.

By PETTI FONG