The Future of Electronics Recycling

Maybe the future of "ewaste" recycling will be a lot like textile recycling.

From MIT's Technology Review, article by KRISTINA GRIFANTINI

Display devices will no longer be rigid, but pliable.  Stretch them and fold them.

See excerpt below...

Stiff Upper Lips in Vermont

Vermont:  1927, 1998, 2007, 2008, 2011.     Road washaways are becoming more and more "normal".  The special things they did with heavy stone after 2008 made me think we were learning our lesson and could meet the force of water with better engineering. [Photos from http://www.mansfieldheliflight.com/flood/ ]

Times like this, I think about my dear friends who embrace the "zero waste" recycling slogan.  It's ok, like "never say die" is ok, in the right context.  Or, "Act of God", in the right place and the right time, Michelle Bachmann.

It is a challenge to "engineer" a message or a slogan which will survive any tempest of context.   As a crusader of sorts myself, I need to be able to find humor and set priorities straight.  Music and children, enjoying good food with friends.  But keeping in mind our role as raindrops, each of us, with one person's impacts.  Our individual consumption matters, in a flood of carbon, deforestation, extinction, and locust-ization of the human population.

Floods bring lots of business for waste disposal companies, but are not much good for reuse or recycling. Waste is everywhere.  When a natural catastrophe hits, maybe its time to set down our pens, go outside and clean up.  It's too easy to find yourself talking about it instead of doing it.

1-2-3: Crushingly Simple China E-Waste

Now, in Today's China Daily


A news story, a video, and a photo provide something you all need to know, right here and now, about E-Waste and China for the remainder of the decade.  

ONE:

News Story:  China buys more PCs than the USA, and generates as much or more "e-waste" as the USA does.  Whether the USA is exporting 20% or 80% to China, and in what form, is immaterial to China's environment.

TWO:

Video:  The best recycling of electronics is done by hand, not by shredder.  Working parts (chips and heat sinks), higher grade metals (like rare earth magnets and electric grade copper wire), and grades of plastic can be managed by hand in nations which have low wage labor and high unemployment.  Here it is in China...

Here is the "future" of E-Waste Recycling. 
Huaxing Environmental.    


THREE:

China has factories using CRT glass cullet to make new CRTs.  They have the factories which reuse CRTs on assembly lines to make brand new, affordable, refurbished displays for Africa etc.

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ANSWER THE QUESTION:  IS REPAIR AND REFURBISHMENT LEGAL?

BASEL CONVENTION SAYS "YES" It is LEGAL.

ADVOCATE (BAN.ORG) ADVOCATES FOR THE AMENDING THE CONVENTION SO IT WON'T BE LEGAL,  BUT STATES THAT THE SHIPMENT IS ALREADY ILLEGAL.

IS MANUFACTURER TAKE-BACK ILLEGAL?  BAN friends say "takeback" is the solution.  But that is explicitly what BAN is attacking in Indonesia, factory takeback.

E is for "epic fail".   E-WASTE INSANITY.  An NGO calling for amendment, change to a law, based on the fact that the law is against the law.

Take me outside and shoot me now.  The video about Green Godzilla wiping out Japan is happening in China and Malaysia and Indonesia today... but the green monster is an NGO.  Environmentalists, once again, we have met the enemy, and he is us.  Right here, right now.


[ BULLS**T ALERT:  Purported photos of "BIGGEST E-WASTE LANDFILL" in Ghana.  Count how many piece of electronics are in this landfill.  Compare this to the video above, #2.  Get back to me Monday]

E-Waste Company, Standard, Process: What is "Certified"?

Here's a little philosophical question I raised as a stakeholder during the development of R2 (Responsible Recycler) certification standard development...

What if one client wants Ewaste recycled by R2 rules, and another one doesn't?  Can a restaurant serve both kosher and non-kosher foods?  Can a businessman own both a kosher and non-kosher restaurant?

Option 1:  One Company, One Standard, One Process.   You decide you will ONLY offer R2 certified services.   Everyone gets the same price, whether they think it's worth it or not.  This is a good strategy in a big urban market, especially if you are specialized in one product, such as laptops (fewer processes to certify in the first place).  We predicted that the first companies to get either E-Steward or R2 Certification would be from the "no hair on the meat" end of the business - no TVs, no residential, nothing costly.  See last year's post (still regularly visited), "Certify Specialization?  Or Support Recyclers who Work Hard?"

"We sell only kosher foods."

When "E" Is for "EPIC FAIL"

Having made a career out of recycling, and having started my career as a protester, loudmouth, and activist, I approach my 50th birthday with three children, an international pedigree, and "schooling".  As in "environmentalists got schooled"...

THREE EPIC FAILS: