Electronic Waste

Discussion on preserving Nature: preventing the pollution, destruction and disbalancing of the finely-tuned natural ecosystems on our planet.

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Aisin
Posts: 317
Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 6:36 am
Location: Malaysia

Electronic Waste

Post: # 10827Post Aisin »

Electronic Waste, or e-waste, labelled "a dangerous new waste stream" by Greenpeace. Just how much e-waste do we generate by going fashionable with the latest electronic gadgets, namely mobile phones, computers, tv etc?

This report is worth a read:

http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/i ... ckyard.pdf
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ptex
Posts: 564
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:00 am
Location: Europe, Planet Earth

Re: Electronic Waste

Post: # 10828Post ptex »

A very well done report, provides us with food for thought about this "hidden" aspect of our "civilized" world.

Provides us with a frightening but real vision of where does all that e-waste goes and the heavy toll populations living in those countries pay.

In European Community countries almost everything is recycled: paper, plastic, glass, batteries, domestic oil, electronic gadgets and so forth. I'm surprised because now and then I learn about new things that are being recycled and how to do to recycle them and hand them to the proper places. A few of these are toxic items, namely batteries, electronics and pharmaceutical products.

Logistically it's starting to be a rather complex operation to keep up with all the things we can recycle because only a few are centrally handled by municipal services (Eco-points scattered everywhere for paper, plastic, metal, glass and batteries) while others are handled by private organizations, all different and obviously in different places. So for the environmentally conscious person in Portugal, the recycling trips can take a little time and involve trips to different places.

This increasing complexity in having things recycled leads many people to prefer not to recycle at all.
I often observe in my neighborhood many items perfectly recyclable are placed right in the organic trash bin... Hopefully this tendency will decrease as people's ecologic awareness increases.
The best portion of a good man's life is his little nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.
~William Wordsworth
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Rezo
Posts: 725
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2005 1:28 am
Location: usa

Re: Electronic Waste

Post: # 10829Post Rezo »

it would be easier, of course, if the electronic products we use, eventually, will not utilize toxic substances for power to begin with [nickel-cadmium batteries, PCBs, BPA, VOCs, micron particulates, electric car batteries, printer cartridges, etc]. Maybe the very way we channel electricity is part of the problem? Is thermal depolymerization a possible way to reduce such levels of pollution from this? I've heard some good things about it anyway. If computer and other companies started upgrading their env. control at manufacturing to include these, it could clean things up a bit. Maybe. I only know about TD from a few articles I read on it...

Are there any sort of 'environmental' Printed Circuit Boards and chips out there [as opposed to Poly-chlorinated Biphenyls]? I think HP is coming out w/some 'energy efficient' models, but how efficient are they? I plan to keep my computers working as long as I own them, but I used to have a few older ones. For the moment they are still in the old garage, just sitting around...thats part of the problem too, clutter created by technology that almost seems as if built to eventually break down prematurely, then can't safely [or easily] be 'thrown away' - which of course is self deception since, the fumes and pollution throw back at us...[pessimism anyone?]

I'm still curious about research into Rodin Coil and crystal power cell aka 'dirt cheap' work of John Hutchison and Marcus Reid....[overunity forum mainly] - its decades off for 'mass' production but from what Ive read not very hard to build [obviously requiring some safety precautions, which I am not too familiar if they are specific]. In a parallel reality, I'm in a garage, tinkering w/all this stuff, seeing what works well... just planned to make a few small models some day, for powering maybe a tv or radio, some lights [like Steven Marks did].

Ideally, if there were a way to power appliances by solid minerals, without powdering or processing, or requiring input from heat, or releasing waste heat, and wouldn't "appear" to be technological, well - it would probably be the best kind of technology - depending on use of course - alas - this is probably some hundreds of years away [or decades, depending on imagination and/or societal immaturity]. But it kills two proverbial birds w/one stone, rather than a bunch of tiny ones you have to breathe in [that are processed]. In other words, its cleaner. Maybe sounds cooky-ier but I don't care about that anymore ;P
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