Published on July 19th, 2008
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On February 17, 2009 television stations will go digital, meaning that analog TV’s will not longer receive a signal, leaving millions of analog TV owners with a dark and useless TV set. As technology is rapidly advances, we are constantly ‘trading up’ to get a faster connection and sharper image - whether its a cell phone, MP3 player or television.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a comprehensive way to deal with E-waste. In fact, when the stations go ‘lights out’ on analog sets next year, there isn’t an e-waste program to handle the discarded TV’s. Currently, only Sony electronics has offered to take back and recycle old Sony sets. If old sets aren’t properly disposed of, we face cadmium, lead, beryllium seeping into the soil and contaminating our water supply.
According to the Take Back My TV campaign this is the largest government mandated obsolescence program in US history. The Sony announced their recycling campaign earlier this year in a release that noted the amount of e-waste is on the rise and the issue is becoming increasingly crucial as the FCC-mandated switch to all digital TV signals in February 2009 nears. The Consumer Electronics Association expects at least 30 million digital televisions to be sold in the U.S. this year alone.
Photo credit: Sony
Related Posts on E-Waste and Recycling Electronics:
Published on May 29th, 2008
As a long time proponent of the increased use of nuclear energy, I have been involved in thousands of conversations on the topic. (Trust me, I am a boring guest at a cocktail party and a real pain around the water cooler.) Nearly every one of them eventually included the comment that sounds like a question but is usually offered as a trump card aimed at stopping the conversation - “That sounds pretty good, Rod, but what do you do about the waste?”
That is the point where - if the person that I am speaking to has not totally run out of patience or simply cannot wait to get another drink - the conversation gets really interesting. You see, “the waste issue” is the best news that there is about nuclear power. I am not alone in that feeling; many of my long time colleagues like Ted Rockwell, author of The Rickover Effect, How One Man Made a Difference, believe that the byproducts that remain after producing energy with fission are valuable raw materials that should not be considered to be waste products. (See, for example, Why Throw Away a Priceless Resource?)
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Published on May 10th, 2008
No doubt about it, I have my vices. Addiction to coffee seems to be genetic in my family, and so, really, there isn’t anything I can do about it other than try to drink responsibly. Aside from buying organic and fair trade coffee, what you drink out of is as important as what you drink.
I was very excited to see the new Sustain recycled and recyclable mugs from Aladdin. Made from eCycle, a new food-grade safe plastic that is recycled, it can also be dropped in any recycling bin at the end of it’s life cycle. At $9.99, I consider it a bargain, especially when the coffee itself is $5.00. 
The real benefit is that by using this eCycle technology to make their tumblers, the company is: using 2/3 of the energy they would if they made the same product from “virgin” plastics; saving oil (which we should all be thankful for since one ton of recycled plastic saves 685 gallons of oil according to the EPA), and they are helping “close the loop” by using something that is not only recycled but can be reused again. It almost sounds redundant.
This is an example that warrants re-purposing and recycling for other products.
Published on April 26th, 2008
Today’s topic is inspired by Solar Today magazine. “Scrubbing Carbon from the Breeze” was written by Rona Fried, Ph.D., president of SustainableBusiness.com in the May/June 2008 issue. Unfortunately this particular article is not available online.
As climate change become a more central issue for people and governments around the globe, a lot of people are looking for solutions - fast solutions. If there were a quick and inexpensive way to dramatically reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, we should go for it right? Well a number of “quick fix” solutions, which have centered around hacking the environment to fight climate change, have been floating around for years. One strategy is to capture the CO2 with plankton and bury it in the ocean (which is much easier and cheaper than pumping it into the ground). Another is to change the composition of our atmosphere to reflect sunlight. Others tend to be more sci-fi and outlandish - but all of them might just turn out to be disastrous. Read the rest of this entry »
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Published on April 22nd, 2008
Happy Earth Day to all!
This Earth Day let’s break it all down and see things for what they are.
Our world is in a state of climate chaos as a result of our conveniences. This CleanTechnica blog is an opportunity to see what is being done worldwide in the realm of clean technology (ie. renewable energy, alternative fuels, sustainable products and services etc…) so that we can keep these conveniences.
That’s terrific–I’m glad it is being done, but this Earth Day I’d like to say–F your conveniences!
Here are 22 (since it’s April 22nd) things you can do daily that are inconvenient but we would all benefit greatly if everyone did them. And, to be honest–they’re not that inconvenient. They may in fact be just inconvenient enough that when you do them you get the rewarding feeling that you are doing something to benefit the greater good (i.e. earth, and its many earthlings) besides simply donating to a charity once a year during the holiday season.
I know we live in a country full of citizens more excited that Starbucks has a drive-thru than Toyota has a Prius, and will not be truly satisfied until Starbucks has a video camera mounted a mile from its store so it can read your license plate to anticipate your arrival and have your drink ready for you by the time you get there. Then all you’d have to do is slow down enough for the “barista” to throw your “coffee” into your car as you rolled by with your window down. After all, complete stops are for suckers! I digress…
Those people are out there in large numbers–and they are probably not reading this blog, so it’s up to you to send it to them because these 22 inconveniences can change the world.
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Published on April 14th, 2008
Let me be the first to confess: I love my laptop. I spend more time with it than most people in my life, including family, room mates, and boyfriend. I might even go so far as to admit an unhealthy infatuation with the Internet, writing, and a handful of computer games. Yet as an aspiring environmentalist, my electronic sidekick poses an uneasy paradox. How do I lay claim to “green” (whatever that really means) when I spend so much of my time plugged in?
Computers aren’t very environmentally friendly. They contain lead, mercury, cadmium, lots of plastic, and they thirst for electricity. Most people don’t realize that most of a computer can be recycled, so most discarded computers head to the landfill where the heavy metals can contaminate local water and air. Computers and electronics have become disposable in our culture, so the amount of electronic waste generated each year is astounding. Fortunately these are not problems without solutions. Starting from the beginning of a computer’s life to its demise, it can be easy to optimize everything about your PC.
Buying, Building, and Design
With the new popularity of green, critics have been quick to turn on companies like Apple for pumping out so many gadgets. The good news is that companies have been quick to respond with energy-efficient models, recycling programs, and improved design. Many “green” initiatives focus on energy efficiency but ignore manufacturing or end-life issues, so be wary of their “environmental” credentials. If you find a product or company that can vouch for the creation, use, and disposal of their products, you’ve struck gold. The good news is that newer models use fewer harmful chemicals and metals, require less energy, and improve performance. Lean, and mean is the angle many companies are aiming for with “green” patched on to sell. Laptops are the best example of this trend as they become smaller and more powerful simultaneously. So rest easy knowing that if you must buy a new computer, it will probably be more efficient than your old one… assuming you don’t hook a brand new 60-inch flat screen to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on March 1st, 2008
ECO2 Plastics makes me want to dance–although this was after it made me want to sob. I’ll get to the latter later. The former is why I’ve titled this post “Environmental Boogaloo”. Boogaloo (bugalu) is a type of Latin dance and music and, after speaking with the good folks at ECO2 Plastics, I want to dance!
Why I Wanted to Sob
In getting info for this article I found out what ECO2 CEO Rod Rougelot calls “recycling’s dirty little secret.” During the process of recycling plastic, tons of water is wasted during cleaning. This water is not your ordinary run-of-the-watermill water, however. A variety of harmful acids and detergents are added to the water to clean the contaminants, glue, and labels off the plastic. Deflocculants are then added to pull the solids out of the wastewater. Finally, (and this is a very general explanation of the process) the wastewater is treated to balance the pH level of the water. This is done through the use of more chemicals. End result: one, sanitized plastic ready to be recycled; two, a cocktail of harmful, detergents, chemicals, acids, bases, deflocculants, and contaminants headed down the drain and back into our fresh water supply (approximately 40 million gallons per year to be–approximately–exact). When I verbalized my feelings of being hoodwinked, Rougelot quickly pointed out that, although a dirty, wasteful process, it is still better than creating plastic from scratch. Thanks for the verbal tissue Rod. Goodbye, for now, tears!
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