Slashdot Mirror
Fixing the Final Steps In the Recycling Chain
itwbennett writes "The only way to rapidly and cost-effectively devolve computer products is to know the composition of the products. But we don't, says blogger Tom Henderson. This industry — largely at the behest of COMPTIA members — pioneered bar coding schemes, asset tagging, and inventory control, and could now also add rapid product devolution to its list of credits. We need a taxonomy, a method to affix material markings, and a database access method that tells the devolvers how to make money. Do this and you could be a billionaire and a hero, says Henderson."
Or forget about the complexities of a marking scheme that will only be found on a subset of dumped products, many of which will predate any mandatory scheme. Instead, how about analysing the trash on-the-fly? If only there was a cheap open source chemical analyser available...
Somewhat related, but not quite the solution is the Distributed Bill of Materials (DBOM): http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=924533 (and related articles); The DBOM tells the devolvers how to devolve a product and what the resulting parts are made of.
Do this and you could be a billionaire and a hero, says Henderson."
No, this kind of thinking is a result of the lone inventor myth. "If we just had a great idea, we'd be in milk and honey"
What needs to be done is obvious, and already stated. "a taxonomy, a method to affix material markings, and a database access method". Any decent DBA/programmer could design a scheme to do this. The real work is convincing corporations to go along, when there is no obvious quick return on investment. Who would be the first to put their company at a competitive disadvantage in a down economy? (Hard enough in an up economy) The billions that Henderson is talking about have to come from somewhere.
You could set up a company similar to UL labs, that would affix a golden seal to products that met these criteria, then get large organizations on board to set rules that they will give preference to products that have the seal. Not impossible, but the mountains to climb are political (corporate and government), rather than technical.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
I wonder if the biggest obstacles aren't political.
1. Manufacturers don't want competitors to know the ingredients.
2. They also want to keep ingredients from public and government scrutiny and oversight.
3. And as usual, everyone fights change, no matter how beneficial.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
I really don't think the article should keep going on about 'devolving' - to devolve means to transfer power from a government/legislative body to a lower level body. It's got nothing to do with re-cycling or dismantling old electronics!