The steady growth of access to this blog has taken a dip since April. Part of that was a correction from a record high April and Earth Day showing (hard to live up to the Motherboard article). But part of it may also be the Laundromat-Mode of e-waste recycling. We will not always be interesting. The Nestle Boycott was fading away before it was settled. One way or another, e-waste 15 minutes of infame will end, by bang or by whimper. All sides of this debate are mortal.
Discarded electronics are something that most people have, by definition, lost all interest in... It's a challenge for both sides of the Digital Divide / Digital Dump debate. We are all headed for a sober and mundane landing. I remember when "plastics recycling" was a buzzy topic, and "post consumer recycled content" was on everyone's lips in the 1990s. "E-waste" and "exports" are going to normalize, after a ten year stroll along the red carpet. Singapore can join OECD at any time, they are virtually pre-qualified.
Electronics recycling will remain environmentally important, just as all recycling is important - for sustainable materials management on a finite planet. It will just lose its "hard rock star" chic. Environmentalists of my generation remember the alarm over copper, silver and lead mining in the 1970s and 80s. We discovered that our metal mines were moving into countries like Peru and Zambia and Indonesia, recycling earned our attention. The challenge will be to reform and improve e-waste recycling, like the professionals (Bruce Babbitt and Dale Bumpers) who brought positive changes to hard rock metal mining two decades ago.
Discarded electronics are something that most people have, by definition, lost all interest in... It's a challenge for both sides of the Digital Divide / Digital Dump debate. We are all headed for a sober and mundane landing. I remember when "plastics recycling" was a buzzy topic, and "post consumer recycled content" was on everyone's lips in the 1990s. "E-waste" and "exports" are going to normalize, after a ten year stroll along the red carpet. Singapore can join OECD at any time, they are virtually pre-qualified.Electronics recycling will remain environmentally important, just as all recycling is important - for sustainable materials management on a finite planet. It will just lose its "hard rock star" chic. Environmentalists of my generation remember the alarm over copper, silver and lead mining in the 1970s and 80s. We discovered that our metal mines were moving into countries like Peru and Zambia and Indonesia, recycling earned our attention. The challenge will be to reform and improve e-waste recycling, like the professionals (Bruce Babbitt and Dale Bumpers) who brought positive changes to hard rock metal mining two decades ago.
