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Where Computers Go To Die
broohaha writes "Salon.com has a featured article on where all our unwanted techno trash gets sent, and what is not being done enough to account for all the so-called 'recycling' we're doing. From the article: 'More than 50 percent of our recycled computers are shipped overseas, where their toxic components are polluting poor communities. Meanwhile, U.S. laws are a mess, and industry and Congress are resisting efforts to stem the effluent of the affluent.' Some sites to visit dedicated to attacking the problem are Computer Take Back Campaign and Ban Action Network."
That's Basel Action Network, not Ban Action Network!
http://www.systemrecycler.com/
Disabled guy takes old equipment, cleans and refurbishs it, repairs it if needed, loads Linux and gives it away to the needy.
Some of it is resold to cover basic costs but it's pretty much a non-profit.
Not too long ago, a french ship lined with toxic asbestos was sent to India (finally had to be returned) and had wide coverage in media. The poor are happy to take these things apart and make some quick cash without any knowledge of long-term ill effects. Sometimes, the hunger and immediate needs prevail over any consideration of long-term ill effects.
2 0.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4577198.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/46924
In Belgium (and maybe also in other European countries), this problem is solved by asking a recycling tax and making vendors responsible for recycling old hardware and household appliances.
When buying something, a customer has to pay a small amount of money (for instance: 0,5 for a mobile phone), but in return, he can return his old devices to the vendor. The vendor then sends it to the manufacturer who recycles it.
IIRC, Kyoto is all about the carbon output. With respect to old computers, Kyoto would have only made the situation worse. Since China and India are exempt from Kyoto, even more old gear would be sent there so that the CO2 generated from recyling the metal wouldn't have to be monitored, counted, or paid for as it would (in theory) in the West.
Not that it really matters, IMHO, it's only a matter of time before Kyoto is officially declared dead. Here in Canada we're hopelessly behind our goal, the only way to meet our target would be to buy a billion dollars of CO2 credits from Russia -- which would have exactly zero impact on CO2 emmissions because Russia's CO2 credit surplus is due to a timing fluke relating to their collapsing economy in the post-Cold War period.
With China, India, and most other developing countries exempt from Kyoto, (and to a lesser extent, the USA opting out) there's very little incentive for those who have signed on to actually do anything. Plus, the costs of meeting the targets through technology (e.g. hybrids, or new power plants, or home upgrades) are enormous.
In Europe, RoHS (restriction of hazardous waste) laws come into effect in June (or is it July) this year. Any electronics imported after that date will need to comply wrt hazardous materials - so this means all electronics will need to be on new manufacturing lines with lead free components. And its not just lead - preservatives in plastics among others.
List of main culprits is here (Look for "six substances" link).
List is:
Lead - Pb
Mercury - Hg
Cadmium - Cd
Hexavalent Chromium Cr (VI)
Polybrominated biphenyls - PBB
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers - PBDE
BAN = Basel Action Network (If you'd RTFA)
Finland has similar system as Belgium does. And the are NOT sent to third-world countries, but they are recycled. Well, in Finland, they are not sent to the manufacturer, but to recycling-plants (for free). There they get recycled. Refrigerators have their freon collected and processed in controlled fashion before they are recycled. All the useful elements and material are extracted and reused. This system hasn't been in use for long, but it has caused the amount of stuff being sent to recycling to increase by a lot. And there's a lot less stuff being thrown to the forests etc., since it's easy to dispose it properly. In the past, disposing large appliances and electronics was a pain in the ass.
The downside of this system is that prices of electronics and appliances have this "recycling-tax" in 'em. But the price-increase is few euros for a large appliance, so it's more than reasonable.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Blaming the gov't for everything makes him a pinhead with a tinfoil hat. Blaming Bush and his administration for everything makes him a troll. The "Impeach Bush" crowd are a bunch of moron hypocrits.
Bush lets the oil companies gouge consumers during a time of emergency? Then he's an evil capitalist pig screwing over America to fill his own pockets with oil money. Impeach Bush!
Bush signs an executive order freezing the price of gas in the US as a response to a massive emergency situation? Then he's a fascist. Impeach Bush!
These people hate him for no explainable reason, and he's damned and evil no matter what he does in their minds. And the most illogical thing is they typically get angry at him for stuff Congress should be doing or has already done wrong. Don't like the PATRIOT Act? It's as much the House and Senate's fault as is it Bush, so bashing 1 person out of 536 for personal reasons is simply not constructive and will accomplish nothing.
www.freegeek.org
:D
Freegeek operates in Portland. I do volunteer work there and it's a neat place. They take old hardware, strip it, recycle what they can, and the rest gets put into their rebuilding program.
They take the decent stuff, and after testing it gets built into new systems (Yes, they put linux on them!) and given to other non profits, needy types, etc.
The beauty of the system is that they teach volunteers to build these sytems. The volunteers learn a bit, build so 6 systems, then they get to take the sixth home with them.
So, Freegeek does the following:
Recycles old hardware
gives "new" boxes to good causes
teaches people how to build a computer
teaches people how to use linux
gives people who can't afford a computer a chance to earn one
All around, a damn fine setup... And before you ask them, no they don't have one in INSERT YOUR CITY HERE.
as the old saying goes: remember kids, silicon is for chips, silicone is for tits.
Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S
Anytime one of these articles comes up, someone posts a link to Free Geek, your local place where technology is recycled. That is because people think Free Geek is awesome. Because it is awesome. Although, you know, you can also learn a lot about Free Geek here
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Rather than throw old PCs into the trash and fueling the waste problem find new uses for them.
For example, old PCs 386 or later, can be reused as a router/firewall. They provide excellent security for your home LAN while keeping it out of the waste pile. Being floppy based, Freesco does NOT require a hard disk! Install the software and reuse the PC or give it to someone who will. See:
http://www.freesco.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FREESCO/
Later PCs, such Pentium 400 MHz or later, can be reused as MythTV PVRs by adding an inexpensive TV tuner ($20-$30) I have gotten PCs as old as P2 266MHz 128 MB to have some limited PVR functionality. (contact me if interested in old PC PVRs)
http://amicus.sourceforge.net/
Practically any PC, 386 or better, can run lightweight Linux distributions such as DSL or Debian for general purpose computing.
http://damnsmalllinux.org/
http://debian.org/
These are just three low cost methods I have personally used to recycle old computers. Use your imagination and Google, and you can see there are many other options too. Don't throw it away, make the old PC into something useful reuse it or give it to someone who will!
Andrew Lynch
then new PCs. e.g. my 200mhz dell's processor pulls 30 watts as opposed to my Athlon's 90. You really only see low power PCs in business and desktop environments (and laptops). Most users are still buying cheap Dell Boxen with 300 watt power supplies running full on.
Besides, once you hit 200-300 mhz with a tnt/rage128 class graphics card you can do any 2D task you care to name. That was a major concern for PC venders back in the day: how are we gonna get people to upgrade when this year's models are only sightly better? luckily Microsoft to the rescue with bloatware 5.1 SP2, but you can still get by quite nicely with a pared down Linux install running Abiword/Gnumeric/Firefox.
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