Japan's War On E-Waste

Stonent1 writes "With the increasing number of high tech devices in Japan filling landfills, Japan has taken a proactive approach to E-waste. BBC News has an interesting article on Matsushita's electronics recycling plant. For example, TV and monitor tubes are opened with a special tool and separated into leaded and unleaded glass, melted and reused in new displays! The plastic housing is also melted down and reused. Sounds like a good idea for the U.S., too."

Comments

Not likely soon

[deman1985]

I think it's rather unlikely for this to happen in the US anytime soon. The time it takes to disassemble electronics properly to separate them out into the varying material types would make the process very expensive, and seeing as how companies are already cutting corners in every way they can, I find it hard to believe they would bother pouring money into device disposal.

Re:Deposit

[nordicfrost]

Here, in the land of the midnight sun, we have to pay a recycling and disposal fee for every electronic product. This has an advantage; the store is obligated to take your old TV in return and dispose of it properly. Saves me a trip to recycling plant.

Not until we are the size of japan

[newt_sd]

We won't recycle unless
1. Its very profitable
2. We are having such a land issue that it mandates recycling.
3. Its legislated

This should be clear by some of the eastern states railroading their garbage out west.
Don't get me wrong I love the idea of recycling and should be doing more of it myself but just don't think I will see a big push for it till one of those things happens

Re:Good idea? Probably not.

[Abcd1234]

Wow, this is a brilliant post. "We don't need to recycle 'cuz we still have plenty of room to put our massive amounts of garbage!". Seriously, that has to be the most unbelievably ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I don't *care* if there's lots of room to throw more garbage... it shouldn't go there in the first place. Especially things like circuit boards, etc, which contain many toxic chemicals (eg, lead, mercury, etc). Do *you* want this stuff seeping into your water table in 50 or a 100 years when the landfill lining breaks down (something which has happened at other sites already)?

Proactive vs Reactive

[Fungii]

"With the increasing number of high tech devices in Japan filling landfills, Japan has taken a proactive approach..."

huh? Clearly they are taking a reactive approach.

I hate the way people use buzzwords like proactive without stopping to think what they actually mean.

Electronics need to be designed for recycling

[alchemist68]

Electronics need to be designed for recycling. I'm sure that when a chip manufacturer is designing a new chip, recycling isn't even a consideration in the design. There are several elements that are ever increasing in the American economy faster than elsewhere in the world: energy prices, property taxes, health care expenses, living expenses, and entertainment. We are headed for the "Artificial Intelligence" future where we have to be mindful of the total cost of manufacturing something and looking at the value we get from that product. Is "X" product really that useful for society? How will it affect the environment (land fill or otherwise) after its usefulness is gone? Are there other uses for the material in that product? Are those materials easily disassembled or dismantled into component parts? This type of thinking will eventually persist in the USA one day, but not anytime in the near future. Let's face it, human existence is starting to get expensive. Why the hell do you think all those manufacturing and white collar computer science and science (chemistry, biology, etc...) jobs are moving to overseas markets?

good idea, not gonna happen in US

[fermion]

This is a good idea for the US.

First, there is a shortage of landfill space for certain communities. The communities selling landfill space are merely reducing the landfill space for future generations.

Second, some things should not be land-filled because they are toxic to humans. It is pretty much impossible to design a landfill that will be safe for a significant amount of time. Most rational communities have recycling programs set up so these waste do not end up in the landfill. These are often funded out of the public purse.

The reason recycling efforts, and clean manufacturing efforts, tend not to work in the US is because commercial interests are allowed to externalize disposal costs to the government and future generations, and therefore not make the cost of clean up part of their business plan. Therefore, dirty operations are often artificially more profitable than clean operations.

The problem, as we seem, comes later when the mess has to be cleaned up and a new generation is asked to pay. We see this now with the superfund cleanup status of a number of defunct commercial entities.