Microchips are tiny, but their environmental footprint is heavy.

• Author: Runyan, Curtis
• Position: Environmental Intelligence - Brief Article

A single 2-gram computer microchip requires 630 times its weight in chemicals and fossil fuels to be produced and used, according to a new study published in the December 10, 2002 issue of Environmental Science and Technology. The report, the first comprehensive materials flow analysis of a 32-megabyte memory chip, undercuts the reputation of the electronics sector as a relatively "clean" industry--and belies the widely held belief that the computer revolution heralds a "dematerialization" of the post-industrial economy.

"The relative use of secondary materials is much higher for the microchip than for traditional goods," finds the report. For example, a single passenger automobile rolling off the assembly line requires the equivalent of about 3,000 kilograms of fossil fuels and chemicals to build. That means the quantity of resources needed to build a car versus the weight of the vehicle works out to a ratio of 2 to 1. The production-to-weight ratio for a chip is 630 to 1.

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