Sustainable Electronics Initiative Blog

Join us for a webinar on Wednesday, November 28, 2012, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM CDT. This seminar will be hosted at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in Champaign, IL, and simultaneously broadcast online. The presentation will be archived on the ISTC web site (see http://www.istc.illinois.edu/about/sustainability_seminars.cfm for more information and additional webinar archives).

Marta Keane, Recycling Program Specialist & Green Business Relations Coordinator for the Will County (IL) Land Use Department Resource Recovery & Energy Division, will present “Electronics Recycling in Will County 2012.” Register online for this webinar at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/792822047.

Abstract: Effective January 1, 2012, Illinois banned disposal of electronics in landfills. This presentation will describe Will County’s collection efforts before the mandatory ban, the county’s Front Door Electronic Service Program (a 3-year pilot program started April 2011), and steps taken to prepare for the ban. Results of these efforts thus far will be discussed as well as some remaining issues yet to be resolved. Examples of additional sustainability programs being conducted by Will County will also be described, including: efforts that resulted in receiving the Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award in 2012; household hazardous waste service; tire collection events; book reuse & recycling events; shoe collection/textile collection; medication collection; green building improvements; and the Landfill Gas-to-Energy project.

SEI, the Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR), and ISTC are hosting a series of seminars this fall focused on sustainable electronics research and issues. Watch the SEI calendar for upcoming seminar dates. You may contact Nancy Holm, SEI Research Coordinator, to be added to the mailing list to receive email notifications of upcoming seminars.

Join us for a webinar on Monday, November 5, 2012, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM CDT. This seminar will be hosted at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in Champaign, IL, and simultaneously broadcast online. The presentation will be archived on the ISTC web site (see http://www.istc.illinois.edu/about/sustainability_seminars.cfm for more information and additional webinar archives).

Dr. Carol Handwerker, Reinhardt Schuhmann Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, will present “Sustainable Electronics: Lessons Learned from the RoHS and the Pb-free Transition.” Register online  for this webinar at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/712035655.

Abstract: With the impending ban on Pb in electronics in 2006, the consumer electronics industry world-wide began working together in the late ’90′s to define a standard Pb-free solder alloy for electronics manufacturing. The speed of the transition and the level of cooperation demonstrated in preparing industry to manufacture products with Pb-free solder provide benchmarks for sustainability-driven technology transitions in a rapidly changing global industry.  What does this tell us about future changes in materials and processes as we learn more about the consequences of our electronics use?

SEI, the Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR), and ISTC are hosting a series of seminars this fall focused on sustainable electronics research and issues. Watch the SEI calendar for upcoming seminar dates. You may contact Nancy Holm, SEI Research Coordinator, to be added to the mailing list to receive email notifications of upcoming seminars.

Join us for a webinar on Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM CDT. This seminar will be hosted at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in Champaign, IL, and simultaneously broadcast online. The presentation will be archived on the ISTC web site (see http://www.istc.illinois.edu/about/sustainability_seminars.cfm for more information and additional webinar archives).

Craig Boswell, Co-founder and President of HOBI International, Inc., will present “Closing the Loop on Electronic Devices.” Register online  for this webinar at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/667661975.

The incorporation of Design for Recyclability (DFR) in to the design process is an extremely critical step towards the creation of more recyclable electronics products. A product’s design can have the single greatest impact on both the logistics and the costs of the recycling process. Constraints set forth by the design can dictate not only the methodology used to recycle the product but also the revenues (or costs) generated from the recycling process. This presentation provides an overview of the application of DFR concepts to the design of electronics products.

SEI, the Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR), and ISTC are hosting a series of seminars this fall focused on sustainable electronics research and issues. Watch the SEI calendar for upcoming seminar dates. You may contact Nancy Holm, SEI Research Coordinator, to be added to the mailing list to receive email notifications of upcoming seminars.

Join us for a webinar on Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM CDT. This seminar will be hosted at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in Champaign, IL, and simultaneously broadcast online. The presentation will be archived on the ISTC web site (see http://www.istc.illinois.edu/about/sustainability_seminars.cfm for more information and additional webinar archives).

Dr. Callie Babbitt of the Rochester Institute of Technology will present “Adapting Ecological Models for Linking Sustainable Production and Consumption Dynamics in Consumer Electronic Product Systems” via webinar. Read the rest of this entry »

Join us for a webinar on Wednesday, September 5, 2012, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM CDT. This seminar will be hosted live at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in Champaign, IL, and simultaneously broadcast online. The presentation will be archived on the ISTC web site (see http://www.istc.illinois.edu/about/sustainability_seminars.cfm for more information and additional webinar archives).

Presenters include William Bullock, Affiliate with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center and Professor of Industrial Design in the School of Art and Design, U of I at Urbana-Champaign; and Joy Scrogum, Emerging Technologies Resource Specialist at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, Prairie Research Institute, U of I at Urbana- Champaign.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) has received a pair of national environmental awards. Awards were received for the Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI) and by Dr. Tim Lindsey.

The 2010 Most Valuable Pollution Prevention (MVP2) awards presented by the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR) celebrate the successes of innovators in the areas of pollution prevention and sustainability. These prestigious awards were presented recently at a ceremony in Washington, DC. ISTC is a unit of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Read the rest of this entry »

The Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) recently launched a resource compendium on its web site (called a “Sector Resource”) on electronic waste issues. This compendium will include links to relevant legislation, news, events, funding opportunities, and contacts. An RSS feed is available. Read more about this resource collection on the GLRPPR Blog.

GLRPPR is a member of the Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx), a national network of pollution prevention information centers. The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) is the host agency for GLRPPR.