Your PC is P.C.

Environmentally friendly computing used to mean turning off your PC at the end of a working day. That may cut electricity wastage, but what about the rest of the environmental mess that comes with using a computer? The energy-intensive process of refining and molding plastic means that your computer monitor alone is responsible for a cloud of emissions. And when you eventually toss that monitor on the scrap pile, it’ll take years to break down and will likely leak a pool of chemical nasties into the ground. But computing doesn’t have to cost the earth.

British firm PlayEngine is offering a line of flat-screen monitors (from $330), mice ($20) and keyboards ($30) housed in bamboo shells. Unlike plastic, bamboo is an eco-friendly, renewable material. A crop of this fast-growing grass eats up more CO2 than an equivalent field of trees, so farming it can help to reduce greenhouse gases. It also biodegrades easily and doesn’t release any evil compounds when it’s decomposing. However, that doesn’t mean your keyboard will start decaying on your desk. All of the bamboo is dried and treated for bugs and infestations, resulting in a material that’s harder than oak and no more likely to rot than its plastic equivalent. Now that your eco-guilt has been allayed, all you’ll have to worry about is a panda making a meal of your mouse. www.playengine.co.uk