The Greening of Gavin

TGoG Podcast 090 – How to Reduce e-Waste

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How many of you have old electronic goods lying around, or just dump them in landfill?

I am certainly not one to judge, as I have bought a few computers in my time.  However, I dispose of and recycle my computers and electronic goods as responsibly as I can, or at least attempt to extend their lifespan as long as I can by adding new components or get them repaired.

You don’t have throw them into landfill you know.  You can give them a second life or put them to work again.How to reduce e-waste

Links mentioned during this episode;

Lately you can get devices repaired as there are so many mobile device fix-it shops popping up all over the place.  We have two of these shops in our new shopping mall that I noticed in the last few months.

So next time you think about getting rid of an electronic device, have a think about where it may end up.  Can you repair or upgrade it instead of replacing it?  It is a much better outcome for your back pocket, and the environment in the long run.

4 Ways to Minimize Electronic Waste

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ewasteHow many of you received a nice, shiny computing device for Christmas?  What did you do with the old one?

I am certainly not one to judge, as I have bought a few computers in my time.  However, I dispose of and recycle my computers responsibly, or at least attempt to extend their lifespan as long as I can by adding new components.

This post was originally published in December 2008, and is even more relevant today, now that our lives are surrounded by electronic devices.

Electronic waste or e-Waste as it is known, is becoming a massive problem in global landfills. PC’s as well as most consumer electronic goods contain many heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium, as well as chlorofluorocarbons and brominated flame retardants, which can seep from landfills into water supplies or waft from incinerators into the atmosphere.

We now know that consumer electronics will leach, can leach, and do leach into the the water table. This contamination can last for many thousands of years and have dire health effects and consequences to all living things.

Video link [http://youtu.be/QfN4CTwB3Pk]

 

Cute video, but this is only one aspect.

So how do we fix the issue of eWaste? Well I can think of four straight up.

Reduce – reduction comes to mind straight off the bat.  Do you really need three TV’s and DVD players in your home. How many can you watch or use at once? When an item of consumer electronics breaks, ask yourself if you really need to replace it.  Is it a want or a need?

Repair – when something does break, think about repairing the item. 4 weeks ago, my Surround Sound AV receiver broke and wouldn’t power on. My first thought was to check out the latest models, but my green heart then took over and whispered otherwise. I began looking for repair centres in my local area and found that the closest was in Ballarat, some 70km away.

I had a couple of financial options at the repair centre. I could pay $30 up front and then get a repair quote to see if the item was worth repairing, or I could just go ahead and get it fixed and damn the expense. I chose the first option! After about a week the repair dude called back and said it would cost about $100 to fix the amp. What a bargain, as a new one would have cost anywhere from $500 to $2000 depending on how crazy you went. I asked the guy to proceed, and within a few weeks it was repaired and it now works like a bought one. The bill came to $102! It is well worth doing for major electronic goods, and I feel good for taking the time to fix the broken item.

Reuse – specifically with PC’s, upgrading is a viable option, as shown in the video above. By simply doubling the RAM in your PC, you will see a dramatic increase in performance. If you are running low on storage, ask your local PC’s expert if you can install larger hard drives in your PC. Large capacity drives are relatively inexpensive these days, and can be installed quickly and easily. I have had my PC for 4 years now, and have upgraded the video card, RAM and hard drives.

Instead of placing the old equipment into land fill, I sold them on eBay for someone else to get good use out of. All the kids have hand-me-down PC’s that I have acquired over the years, and it suits them just fine. The only PC’s that I intend to buy in future years are greener models like laptops or notebooks that have had the nasty metals designed out of them. They also consume about 75% less energy than a desktop PC does.

Recycle –  recycle old consumer electronics, don’t just throw them in the bin. There are many PC and electronic recyclers out there. Even my local recycling centre takes electronic goods, but there are dedicated PC recyclers in most major cities. By using these facilities, you are diverting these goods, and therefore the harmful heavy metals as listed above, out of landfill and keep our water and air cleaner for future generations.

So do yourself and the planet a favour and love the one you’re with!

iPhone Marketing Tricks

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The media is full of the latest phone craze, the iPhone 5.

Yes, I agree that it is a good looking phone (that’s it on the left).  Yes, I agree that it is a very useful device, as are iPads, Kindles, Android phones and other tablets.  To have all the functions of a larger computing device in one small object is just simply amazing, and I am being very sincere.

Think about holding many hundreds of books in the palm of your hand without the need to cut down any trees for paper.  It is an amazing environmental benefit.  I realise that mining some of the rare earth metals that are required for the phone/devices has an environmental impact, such as the coltan mining which is driving mountain gorillas out of their habitat, but otherwise this benefit is impressive.

Whilst I have resisted many times to purchase a tablet type device, and still do, I have however succumbed to a smartphone, in the form of the iPhone 4S, simply out of necessity.   After all, there are not many options for just a plain old phone any more.   It may sound hypocritical, especially when I abhor consumerism so much, so let me share with you what I have learnt from first hand experience.

Marketing Devices

Smartphones and Tablets are some of the best marketing devices ever!  Yes, that is what they are primarily designed for.  As content consuming machines.

After you have played with all the free stuff, and there is not much of it, what is the next thing that you do?  You go and buy some content.  Apps, or newspapers, or even eBooks like the ones I publish, then maybe some music or a movie, or even a TV series.  There literally are millions of content items to choose from.  The range is endless.

So, the main goal is to entice you to buy content, and lots of it.  Why do you think the iTunes store or Google Play looks so cool and helpful.  To entice you!  In the end the content could cost you many more times the price of the original device.

Designed Obsolescence

The secondary goal is to create a desire in the buyer to consume more devices.  My last phone, a Nokia died after 7 long years of faithful service.  It became unrepairable.  I did not want for a new phone during its lifetime.  However, I must be a rare breed indeed, especially since I work in the IT industry.  Many people upgrade their phones as soon as the next model is available.

All computer manufacturers design electronic devices with a specific lifespan in mind.  However, Apple is one of the supreme masters of designed obsolescence due to their non-user replaceable battery in all iPod, iPhone, and iPad devices.  The battery has a limited lifespan and soon degrades in as little as 18 months.  You can replace it yourself, but not without some considerable heartache because you have to buy a special screwdriver to dismantle it and it voids the warranty.

The designed hardware capability is no better.  I recently found that when I upgraded to iOS 6, my phone’s operating system is now double the size of the old one, and the phone is slightly slower in its operation.  Each version of the operating system is designed to add new features that the older devices just cannot handle, which forces or convinces the user to upgrade to the new hardware, hence making more profit for the said company.

Manufactured Demand

All companies try and manufacture demand for their products.  Apple seams to have a knack at doing it better than all the others, and I am not sure why.  Is it because they market simplicity and sexiness in their products.  Can a phone be sexy?  I am not sure, but I have noticed that at the launch of each of their new products, there is a mass marketing campaign like no other, and an associated consumer craziness that goes along with it.  Release little additional features like a slightly larger display, or thinner body, or better camera at each model release is one way, but there is an even more subtle way.

Why, I ask you, that upon release of a new Apple product does there always seam to be a sudden shortage?  Is this created on purpose to stimulate an artificial demand?  Surely Apple would know how high a demand the last product release had when they release a new one?  Learning from past releases would be in a companies best interest, would it not?  Or would it.  A limited supply creates an artificial demand in the minds of the consumer, some who would sell their first born child to get their hands on one!  Yes readers, this is simply a marketing technique from the marketing masters.

Awareness

So dear readers, I am not disparaging anyone from purchasing one of these devices, even Apple products, because they are useful and attractive.  As I said, I own one myself.  But let’s speak truthfully and acknowledge their real purpose.  It is to separate you from your hard earned cash, create desire, and boost profits and shareholder value.
Plain and simple.