electronic waste

Greenpeace Grades Electronics Makers on e-Waste

jplatt — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Greenpeace has once again released its Guide to Greener Electronics, this time focusing on e-waste. Nokia and Samsung took the top slots, while HP, Lenovo and Dell were all penalized for failing to follow through on promises to phase out vinyl plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products by the end of the year.

Greenpeace did praise the company for the products they sell that don't have those chemicals, or use less of them, but took them to task for delaying their promise to stop using them altogether.

Apple also got praise for minimizing its use of PVCs and BFRs, a move Greenpeace says every company should be able to emulate, and Philips, which made huge strides in its battle against e-waste:

The Guide to Greener Electronics star this time goes to Philips -- and the 47,000 people who sent emails to the company!

The Dutch electronics giant reacted to our e-waste campaign with a dramatic about-turn on recycling and take-back. They've jumped from 15th to 4th place in one go. Following public pressure, the company has significantly improved its position on taking financial responsibility for the recycling of its products when they become e-waste.

You can download the entire report here.

The previous verison of the Greenpeace report, published in December 2008, focused on companies' climate leadership.

Upgrading Your Cell Phone? Go Green with Refurbished Phones

jplatt — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:00:00 -0500

How often do you replace your cell phone? Every two years? Every year? More often than that? How many cell phones have you gone through in your life so far?

Think about all of those old phones you used to own. What happened to them? Did they end up being recycled, or did they become electronic waste that is poisoning our land and water?

Or... did they get refurbished and resold to a new owner, someone who got an extra six months or two years of life out of a device you didn't want any more?

Buying refurbished phones is a great idea. Not only is it green -- it's better to keep a device in use than to make and sell a brand new one -- but you can often save a lot of money by purchasing a pre-used cell phone. For example, AT&T is selling refurbished 8G iPhones for just $99 -- that's half price!

Okay, that AT&T deal is only if you get a two-year contract, but they're far from the only source for refurbished phones. Credo Mobile offers several models (some of which are free with two-year contracts), as do other cell phone companies.

So think about this next time you decide to replace your phone. Do you really need the newest, hottest device with all the bells and whistles, or will last month's model do just as well? Check with your cell phone provider to see if they have refurbs for sale, or Google "refurbished cell phones" to find dozens of sites selling refurbished phones online. (You might need to check with your carrier to make sure they can activate your new phone.)

Do You Know How to Recycle Your Old TV?

jplatt — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:00:00 -0500

A whole bunch of TVs are likely to be replaced over the next few months. Not only will retailers be dropping their prices in a desperate bid to reduce their inventory, many TVs will need to be replaced before February's transition to digital television.

But if you're going to buy a new TV set, do you know how to get rid of your old one? Do you know the rules for disposing of electronics in your community, and will your local recycler take care of your old devices in a responsible manner?

A group called the Electronic TakeBack Coalition has some advice.

First off, if you're worried about your TV working after the DTV transition, you should go to www.DTV.gov to find out if you can just buy a converter box.

If you are going to chuck the old set, find out the local rules for your community, and don't leave your old set outside "hoping someone will take it." According to the ETBC, that just sets up a situation where toxic lead and other substances can leach into the ground if it rains on your old set.

Next, try to make sure your recycler will handle your old set responsibly, and not send it to a third-world recycling center with few eco-friendly regulations. (You can often drop TVs off at retailers like Staples and Best Buy, who charge a small fee.)

Finally, before you buy your new set, check out the ETBC's new TV Recycling Report Card. The organization has ranked 14 major manufacturers and 3 retailers with house brands according to their TV takeback programs. Only Sony earned a grade above a C, and then only making a B- grade because they need more national recycling sites.

For more information, visit http://www.takebackmytv.com/

Apple Continues Greening Trend with Newest iPod

jplatt — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:54:41 -0400

Apple isn't the greenest company on the planet -- but it's constantly making improvements.

The company's latest step is this week's announcement of its "cleanest" iPod yet, the newest version of the iPod nano. The device is manufactured with arsenic-free glass; contains no Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR), mercury or PVC; and is said to be highly recyclable because it is made with aluminum and glass.

"We want to be just really environmentally sensitive with these products. We ship a lot of them," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "We're constantly worried about reducing the size of the packaging and the transportation carbon that we spend to move these around the world. But the biggest thing we worry about are the toxics."

Greenpeace has long criticized Apple for not being environmentally friendly enough (see their old "Green My Apple" campaign, a name Apple itself has co-opted to embody its environmental mission). But the environmental group praised Apple's announcement, while also calling on Apple to continue to go greener with their computers and iPhones.

The new fourth-generation iPod nano will be available this month in two models: 8GB for $149, and 16GB for $199. Macworld has a complete review.

Books vs. eBooks: Which Are Greener?

jplatt — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:39:56 -0400

Amazon.com has sold nearly 300,000 of its Kindle eBook readers since it introduced the device earlier this year. Rumors of a Kindle 2.0 release before year-end have been squashed, but that doesn't mean that the interest in electronic books is fading. If anything, it continues to grow and hit new markets.

But is an eBook really greener than a regular, paper book?

Let's examine some of the issues:

Books are printed on paper. Paper requires trees and extensive chemical processing. But paper can be recycled, and a paper book can be read more than once, by more than one person. The more times a book is read, the "greener" it becomes. (Libraries, gotta love 'em!)

Books are heavy. Paper weighs a lot, especially if we're talking about hardcover books, books printed on glossy paper (say, graphic novels), textbooks, etc. The more a book weighs, the more expensive (and less green) it is to deliver it to a retailer or to your mailbox.

eBooks need energy. Every time you read an electronic book, you need to use some electricity. This need will be minimized as electronic paper technologies improve, but no matter what, you can't search for, buy, deliver or read an eBook without the "e."

eBooks have no resale value. Once you've read a paper book, you can keep it, discard it or sell it. Some used books are barely worth 25 cents; others can become collectors' items and be worth a fair amount of change. Any time an object can be re-used or re-sold, it is greener than something that can not.

eBooks = eWaste. eBook reader technologies are still developing. Early adopters are going to end up trading in their devices for new ones, and that creates the possibility that the old devices will just create electronic waste.

What's the bottom line? It's still a decision that should be made by the individual reader. If you read books more than once, collect them, trade them, or just enjoy the feel of a paper book in your hand, traditional books are still the way to go. But if you read books once, don't want to worry about disposing of them, read a lot for business or school, and want to avoid shipping costs (include greenhouse gases), then an eBook reader might be the best thing ever.

Another Way to Recycle (or Sell) Your Electronics

jplatt — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:10:03 -0400

Even though I have written about ways to recycle your old electronics several times, I still have a few old devices gathering dust here on my desk. So when an electronics recycling website called Second Rotation relaunched as Gazelle this Monday, I took notice.

Gazelle works remarkably simply. You type in the type of device you want to get rid of, Gazelle asks if what condition it is in and if you have all of the accessories and manuals, and then it makes you an offer to buy the device from you.

I tried it out, and quickly found that my old Palm Z22 will earn me $10. Gazelle will send me a postage-paid box to ship the device to them, and they'll take care of it from there. Personal data will be wiped clean, and the device will be resold on the secondary market, meaning it gets put to use rather than being destroyed. Remember the old mantra of "reduce, reuse, recycle"? Well, they're embracing it all the way.

Gazelle won't buy every device you have sitting around, but even if they won't take it for cash, they will still offer to recycle your devices responsibly.

Individuals aren't the only ones who can take advantage of Gazelle. Businesses, schools and organizations can sell devices in bulk, which can be a good fund-raiser for any local non-profits.

Oh, you can also choose to donate your earnings rather than take cash directly. For my ten bucks, that works just fine.

A Greener iPhone

jplatt — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:00:00 -0400

More than a million 3G iPhones were sold in the U.S. in the three days following the hot new device's release, a victory not just for Apple, but also for green electronics.

Not that Apple is telling us that. But as Worldchanging recently uncovered, the new iPhone takes several strides toward being a more environmentally responsible device.

Most importantly, the iPhone's battery is no longer soldered into place. Not only is solder a potentially toxic substance, its use made it impossible for users to replace their own batteries. If an iPhone battery failed, owners had to ship their devices back to Apple to be fixed, or just throw them out. So, no solder automatically means less toxic waste.

By the way, Apple also brags that the iPhone's battery life exceeds that of other 3G devices. Duly noted.

Worldchaging found a few other changes that make this new iPhone greener than previous versions: "...the handset, headphones and USB cable are all now PVC-free. The circuit board is produced without bromine. The LCD is made sans mercury" All of which is good news.

Of course, a huge percentage of those million iPhones were replacements for older devices. What happened to the old phones? Let's hope they were recycled properly. (See my earlier article, "How to Recyle Your Old Cell Phone.")

Greenpeace grades the greenest electronics

jplatt — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:00:00 -0400

For the eighth time in the last two years, Greenpeace has ranked electronics manufactuers according to their policies and manufacturing procedures to come up with a list of the "greenest" electronics makers.

Companies were ranked on their efforts to reduce e-waste (including accepting products back from consumers after they've been used), improve the power efficience of their devices, disclose their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals in their products (or come up with a timeline to do so).

Once again, Sony Ericsson topped the list, thanks in no small part to their dropping PVC chemicals from their products and making devices that meet or exceed ENERGY STAR requirements for energy efficiency.

Nokia would have come in first place, but lost a full point in its rankings "for corporate misbehaviour on its take-back and recycling practice."

Out of the 18 manufacturers ranked, Microsoft ranked # 17, mainly for the use of toxic chemicals. Nintendo took the bottom slot, scoring poorly on e-waste and energy efficiency.

GoodWill Eases Computer Wasteland

tdupuy — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:00:00 -0500

So you got a new computer. It's super fast and way better than your last
one. You marvel at how quickly technology changes. You wonder how you're
going to get all your files to the new machine. You get your programs
installed. You set your preferences, put a little 'go green' sticker on
it and you are ready to go. But what to do with your old one? Sell it?
Donate it? What if its totally unsalvageable - broken beyond repair. You
can't just throw it out. Garbage collectors sometimes won't even pick it
up. That and uh, your computer is, uhm, toxic waste.

According to an article in Mother Jones:

"Electronic waste accounts for 2 percent of America's trash in
landfills but 70 percent of its toxic garbage. In 2003 alone, 3 million
tons of e-waste were generated in the United States."
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2007/03/iwaste.html

If you have thought that you were sneaky and your solution has been to
give it to the Goodwill and let them deal with it. You're not alone.
According to their website
(http://www.goodwill.org/page/guest/about/howweoperate/recycling) last
year alone Goodwill industries handled 23 million pounds of computers
and MOST of those donations were unusable.

The financial burden to Goodwill safely dealing with all this e-waste
was daunting. Now they have a very simple solution they are trying out
in my neck of the woods, Los Angeles. They're actually doubling as
e-waste recycling places, inviting people to dispose of their old
computers at donation centers. The last time I donated there was a sign
posted making the announcement. I called the Goodwill Headquarters to
follow-up and they are now accepting computers for recycling.

I'm all for making recycling easier and more accessible. The less
obstacles people have to jump through to get rid of e-waste the less
likely there will be hazardous disposals. And locating Goodwills is
easy. They are like foreclosure signs - they're everywhere.

So now when you're donating all the clothes that you have finally
admitted you'll never wear (ever) again, you can more safely dispose of
your e-waste.