Apparently, a group of TV zombies have taken over the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Why? Because all those supposedly “green” electronics being exhibited are actually heading to the dumpster after they’ve died.
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Je-Hyun Kim’s Natural Year Phone design almost makes cell phones cool in my book. The phone, which is made up of hay, a screen, and keys, is designed only to last as long as its functional life cycle (2 years) before it biodegrades and falls apart.
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Do you have tons of plastic bottles lying around your house and excess backyard space? If so, you might want to look into building a plastic bottle greenhouse. The greenhouse idea was devised and brought to life by Blue Rock Station. For $5 (the electronic version is $4), you can buy instructions to build one yourself.
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I loathe plastic water bottles, but for some reason many otherwise rational people seem to love them. Fortunately, a company called Brandimage may save the day and reduce plastic waste with their paper bottle.
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It’s not always easy to get giant corporations to pay attention to consumer demands, but the Electronic TakeBack Coalition may have found a way— by demanding that Panasonic create a national recycling program on a Panasonic jumbotron screen in Times Square.
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Recycling electronics is never easy, so it’s extremely helpful when electronics companies take it upon themselves to help out. Panasonic announced today that is creating a program in the United States to let consumers easily recycle Panasonic products free of charge. The program, which is scheduled to start November 1, is being managed by the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company—a joint venture between Panasonic, Toshiba, and Sharp.
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A UK-based company called i-plas has invented a building material—also called i-plas—made from recycled plastic that could replace concrete, steel, and timber. I-plas can make use of any type of plastic waste except for PVC and thermoset.
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Every time I buy a new gadget it’s like welcoming a new pet into the family. You go to the store, select the perfect little tyke, and rush home to introduce it to your existing collection. The best part? No jealousy among your older electronics: they’re made to play together.
Data centers, the nerve centers for the computing world, use an estimated 2% of all energy used in the United States, and are also heavy users of water. At an AeA presentation I attended in May of this year, Microsoft’s Lewis Curtis shared the following:
Attention has turned recently to how these centers can be made much more resource-efficient. Taking a leadership position in this effort is Advanced Data Centers (ADC) , who has just earned a LEED platinum certification for its data center in McClellan Park in Sacramento, California. ZDNet interviewed ADC’s Bob Seese on how the center achieved its LEED rating, summarized here:
Related Post: Cooling Data Centers Could Prevent Massive Electrical Waste
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:
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