Sustainable Electronics Initiative Blog

As Aida mentioned in an earlier post, a lack of a global standard for e-waste is one of the biggest problems we, in the e-waste industry, have to deal with.  Inconsistencies between states, countries, and continents not only make it hard on the manufacturers but also on the well-intentioned collectors.

Sunil Herat, a senior lecturer in waste management at Griffith University in Australia, addressed this problem in a recent paper titled International regulations and treaties on electronic waste (e-waste).  Herat has given an overview of the different policies in different regions.  This post will be a summary and commentary of that document. Read the rest of this entry »

When I wrote the first blog, I didn’t think much of  it and I did not expect a lot of comments and feedback, but that is exactly what I got! Since this seems to be a popular topic, the mini-series may be longer than initially expected. Last week, I mainly focused on the convenience factor of the eBooks, but several new points were brought to my attention.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last July I posted an article called “All You Need to Know About Finding an Electronic Recycler.” For this article I researched recyclers, databases, magazines, and manufacturers to find the most comprehensive and responsible electronic collection agencies. I then whittled those down and only suggested a few that I thought gave an overall sense of the type of resources available. It wasn’t until last week that I found an article that did exactly this… only better!  The article is by NCER (National Center for Electronics Recycling.) It was intended for the State of West Virginia, so some of the suggestions are rather specific for West Virginia but others, like the manufacturing programs, are nationally run.  Here is what NCER says about specific manufacturer collection programs: Read the rest of this entry »

The content of this blog now has a designer’s view of e-waste, a recycler perspective, a recent engineering graduate’s thoughts, and the perspective of a current college student about e-waste and electronics sustainability. But what about the everyday consumer? Without the consumer’s contribution or consideration of e-waste, nothing could be accomplished.

This article is one consumer’s take on electronic waste. The author’s name is Casey Brazeal; he is a long time blogger (northandclark) but a first time e-waste commenter. Casey offers a unique consumer perspective from an environmentally conscience standpoint.

It may not always be easy to do but I try to see the value in all electronics: a broken air conditioner, a dead cell phone, an 8-track tape player…

They have all been manufactured and so they have all gone through many steps to get to where they are today and definitely not without some cost to the environment. Is the presence of that guilt in knowing that I contributed to this problem enough to have me care about the best solutions? Why is it so hard to appreciate yesterday’s electronics? This is what I have come up with: the pace of innovation makes so much of what we have seem worthless so fast. The CD player that was my greatest treasure seven years ago is now growing dusty in the corner of my room; taking up space, cluttering my room.

Nontheless, even with the apparent state of uselessness, I still cannot forget the value of these electronics. In the making of any electronic product miles were traveled, metal was shaped, and great rocks were dug out of the ground. All this was done to make these things that now sit seemingly indefinitely in my attic. If we do not think about how we dispose of these valuable yet outdated electronic materials they will end up causing even more damage. It is our responsibility to consider how we can put old electronics to good use through responsible disposal, repair, or donation.

I try to remember that if my electronic waste goes to someone who can recycle the parts here in the U.S. I am helping provide Americans with jobs. If I repair my old equipment I am preventing the environmental impact associated with creating new electronics. If I donate my used electronics to someone who will use it, I am helping the less fortunate in my own community.

We have to take care of our junk.

William Bullock is the Director of the Design for Energy and Environment Laboratory (DEE Lab,) an Affiliated Faculty Member for the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC,) and he has been my professor of industrial design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign for the past two years. I sat down with him recently to get an experienced designer’s perspective on e-waste.  After all, designers are a vital part of the creation of e-waste; they can have a lot to do with the perpetuation or prevention of waste just by the decisions they make early on in the manufacturing stage.

Recently, I have noticed that most designers came to an unspoken consensus about design, it can not be about simply making more things; resources are limited, waste is ever increasing and our environment is suffering.  Sustainability is no longer just a good idea, it is a necessity.  This change came in the middle of William’s career and instead of reluctantly complying like some of his colleagues did, he embraced the idea of socially conscious design wholeheartedly.

William acknowledges that industrial design can be part of the problem.  Industrial designers create attractive newer looking products in an effort to stimulate sales.  This can encourage consumers to unnecessarily throw away products in favor of buying newer looking, often more “aesthetically pleasing” ones.  William also believes that we have the capability, as designers, to change that. William said, “We need to not only to deal with waste but also figure out how to reuse, recycle, design things so that they can be easily upgraded instead of thrown away all together.” He wondered if it is possible to find a universal aesthetic so that objects do not get dated as easily.

The positive side to designing superfluous products is that it sustains our economy. I asked William if he thinks it has to be one or the other; environmental concerns over economical ones.   He admitted that  is a challenge. “We are gluttonous” William explained, “so we might not only have the problem of having people buy new, but how do we make it so that when the old things are thrown out they do not harm the environment?”

William McDonough, a designer that recently spoke at the University of Illinois, has a lot of ideas that address this problem. For instance, he proposed a pen that you can stomp into the ground when you are finished with it and it would have the right nutrients and seed impeded in the pen to make it grow into a flower.  Ideas like these that do not discourage consumption but are also great for the environment is a trend that needs to be further exploited.

Another solution that William Bullock is focused on is providing information to the public because he believes that people are more apt to the right thing once they have the right information.  That is why he is working hard to set up initiatives that teach all there is to know about sustainability in product design.

For more information on William’s educational efforts, see the description of the sustainability and e-waste issues course he taught on the SEI Current Projects page.  The course had a Sustainable E-Waste Design Competition associated with it.  I spoke about both in an earlier post.

It is no secret that the climate is not in the best shape right now, to say the least; polar bears are almost endangered, CO2 levels are 35% higher than preindustrial times, and waste is collecting at ever increasing rates. If you’re not already helping, I’m sure you have wondered at least once how you can aid in mitigating this problem. Hosting an e-waste collection event might not be the first thing that pops into your head, but might I suggest that you consider it. E-waste events can be incredibly beneficial to the environment because they can help keep toxic chemicals from going where they are not supposed to and they can also help your neighbors get rid of some old stuff and maybe even some guilt from holding onto that old stuff.
There are a couple aspects to an e-waste collection event that you should consider to help ensure success. The first thing to do, and probably one of the most important aspects of the event, is making a connection with a credible recycling company. Things to look for in a good recycling company are that they first try to reuse as much equipment as possible before they scrap it. Also make sure they can ensure the absolute safety and protection of information in computers they receive. The recycler should be able to give you some sort of written confirmation saying that every hard drive received at the event will be wiped or taken apart in some way. It is important that you find out exactly what the recycler does with the equipment they receive, so ask questions. Even if the recycler has the equipment to disassemble the electronics on site, they probably still have to ship certain things away (like CRTs) so be sure to ask where that equipment goes. As I have mentioned in a previous post, certified “e-stewards” are companies that have committed to being responsible according to the “e-steward” criteria, so that could be a good place to start when you need a recycler, but there are also a number of other responsible recyclers not on that list.

As for the rest of the event, there are a few other things to consider. One is making sure that the police and town know what you are up to so that you can get their advice on traffic control and ask them what kind of a presence they wish to contribute. Another is picking a location. Of course you want to have something central and easy to get to but also factor in that there might be a lot of traffic backup so make sure there is enough space so cars can line up. Churches, parks, or school parking lots are usually a good option. Also make sure you have a truck to move the equipment and enough volunteers to help you manage the equipment. I suggest at least ten volunteers.

Another thing to consider is advertisement. Radio announcements, posters, ads, or telling a friend to tell their friends are all great ways to get the word out about your event. I suggest that you start a couple weeks in advance but really buckle down the week leading up to the event and advertise as much as possible. The demand to get rid of the equipment is out there, you just have to make your cause known.

Hilary Nixon, of the University of California, Irvine, has been studying the best ways to conduct a recycling event. She has performed surveys all around the state of California to look at how much people would pay to responsibly get rid of their e-waste, how far they would travel, and their willingness to give away their e-waste in general. According to her and her colleague’s findings, 63% of the people surveyed were willing to drop off their e-waste. So as long as you advertise sufficiently you should not have too much trouble getting the traffic you need to make the event worthwhile.

In your advertising make it clear what you are accepting or not accepting. For instance, some recyclers do not have the equipment to manage certain electronics like batteries or refrigerators, so you need to let people know what to bring or not bring ahead of time. Also make it very clear where, what day, and from what hours you will be hosting the event and sometimes it helps to let people know what you are doing with the equipment.

At the actual event you will need most of your volunteers taking the electronics out of cars so that people can get in and out of the event as quickly as possible. At a collection event I was recently involved in we also had about 4 or 5 people taking items from people in cars and about 2 others talking to the people dropping off their equipment. We asked them a couple simple questions to learn more about the problem of e-waste, like how far they came, what they had, and the reason they were getting rid of it. You cannot require that people answer these questions, but any information you get can be very helpful to recyclers or others in the field of e-waste management. At that past event we also performed on site hard drive erasing. I felt that this was especially reassuring to the people donating and it was helpful to have that completed early on.

Finally, the last piece of advice I have to give is that I think the difference between just a smooth event and a hugely successful event is food. In my experience, happy volunteers that are not hungry make for happy events overall.

Good luck with your endeavors and feel free to comment with any differences of opinion, questions, or experiences you care to share.