I sort of get wound up sometimes. I really believe in Fair Trade Recycling, and it's really sad that our biggest opponents are "environmentalists". This post is dedicated as a reminder of some of the people I've been very, very proud to have met in developing nations. See my friends pictures, below the "more" fold.
What is a shame is that I have no slides of, or friends in, Chengdu, China. It's just a little bit smaller than Cairo, with 14 million residents. It's in Western China, which has lagged in development.
How is China trying to develop and advance this part of their country? By partnering with Wistron, (the contract assembly company that owns ACER, number 2 in world PC sales). The mainland Chinese government has turned once again to a Taiwanese billionaire with "tinkerer" roots. Wistron began as a maker of plastic cases for computer monitors, and continues to supply SKD factories. I'm sure there will be Western pessimism about Wistron and environmental stewardship, as there is with Foxconn and other Taiwanese-owned manufacturers. But do they know that Wistron is also opening a major plastic recycling plant in Texas? In fact, Wistron funds my company to collect computers from schools, free of charge, in New England.
I have met several people in the refurbishment business who bragged of knowing Simon Lin (one SKD factory owner was a nephew named after him). Will I live to see one of my friends below, from Africa, Latin America, or South Asia, use the same refurbishing springboard? No more far fetched than the idea of China's Shenzhen beehive would have been (to most) two decades ago. And Taiwanese and Chinese investors are buzzing around Africa and South America like bees on daffodils.
What dreams can we have for the developing world? I learned a new vocabulary word, ODM (original design manufacturer)...
These are great stories, about sustainable reuse, intelligent refurbishing, and geek and tinkerer economies, and recycling takeback, worldwide. When I heard Allen Hershkowitz of NRDC, speaking on the Diane Rehm Show, say "I have been there, I have seen it" to describe "#ewaste exports" to 83% of the world, I shook my head.
I think I've been to a lot of different places. Yet I could never imagine myself saying "I have been there" to describe the rest of the darn world. I've never been to Chengdu, I've never even been to India or Pakistan. But here are some places I have been to, and some people who have electronics knowledge have in common, with each other, with Wistron, and with FreeGeeks and Refurbishers here in the USA.
My dream is that my tinkerer and geek friends will do the same. I'm proud of my exports.
This was my friend in Cairo. We traded about 30,000 computers together in the past decade. He and his brother primarily sold them to hospitals and universities, but also at malls. The trade was banned in Egypt in 2008.
Photo Simon Lin, Wistron chairman
Photo credit: Digitimes file photo
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How is China trying to develop and advance this part of their country? By partnering with Wistron, (the contract assembly company that owns ACER, number 2 in world PC sales). The mainland Chinese government has turned once again to a Taiwanese billionaire with "tinkerer" roots. Wistron began as a maker of plastic cases for computer monitors, and continues to supply SKD factories. I'm sure there will be Western pessimism about Wistron and environmental stewardship, as there is with Foxconn and other Taiwanese-owned manufacturers. But do they know that Wistron is also opening a major plastic recycling plant in Texas? In fact, Wistron funds my company to collect computers from schools, free of charge, in New England.
I have met several people in the refurbishment business who bragged of knowing Simon Lin (one SKD factory owner was a nephew named after him). Will I live to see one of my friends below, from Africa, Latin America, or South Asia, use the same refurbishing springboard? No more far fetched than the idea of China's Shenzhen beehive would have been (to most) two decades ago. And Taiwanese and Chinese investors are buzzing around Africa and South America like bees on daffodils.
What dreams can we have for the developing world? I learned a new vocabulary word, ODM (original design manufacturer)...
These are great stories, about sustainable reuse, intelligent refurbishing, and geek and tinkerer economies, and recycling takeback, worldwide. When I heard Allen Hershkowitz of NRDC, speaking on the Diane Rehm Show, say "I have been there, I have seen it" to describe "#ewaste exports" to 83% of the world, I shook my head.
I think I've been to a lot of different places. Yet I could never imagine myself saying "I have been there" to describe the rest of the darn world. I've never been to Chengdu, I've never even been to India or Pakistan. But here are some places I have been to, and some people who have electronics knowledge have in common, with each other, with Wistron, and with FreeGeeks and Refurbishers here in the USA.
"As an ODM (original design manufacturer) Wistron designs and manufactures products for other companies to sell under their own brand name. "I noticed in the Wikipedia entry for Wistron that they have made a distinction between contract manufacturing (when IBM designs something and outsources the assembly to a factory), and their own design and invention of new products, which they "license" out to western names (like "Polaroid" and "Kodak") for brand recognition. Simon Lin is a living example of how a Tinkerer can rise to the top.
My dream is that my tinkerer and geek friends will do the same. I'm proud of my exports.
This was my friend in Cairo. We traded about 30,000 computers together in the past decade. He and his brother primarily sold them to hospitals and universities, but also at malls. The trade was banned in Egypt in 2008.
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