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The Internet of Trash: IoT Has a Looming E-Waste Problem (ieee.org)
As we add computing and radios to more things, we're also adding to the problem of e-waste. The United Nations found that people generated 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste globally in 2016, and expects that to grow to 52.2 million metric tons by 2021. From a report: There are two issues. We're adding semiconductors to products that previously had none, and we're also shortening the life of devices as we add more computing, turning products that might last 15 years into ones that must be replaced every five years. In fact, many small connected devices such as trackers, jewelry, or wearables are designed to fail once the battery dies. At that point, the consumer tosses it out and buys another.
"turning products that might last 15 years into ones that must be replaced every five years."
That's the idea.
The reason IOT is being applied to otherwise mature technologies (Refrigerators, Ovens, Washing Machines, etc.) is to increase the purchasing cycle and design in 5-year obsolescence.
The whole "battery is not replaceable so I have to throw it away" is a design choice based on cost, not customer demand.
APPLE to thin and to hard to repair $5000 imac pro is really bad storage locked to the T2 chip on board as well?
Digital controls are pretty damn reliable, if properly designed, often better than clockwork timers. Assuming the device is something like a washer/dryer that doesn't NEED wifi to run, it will work long after support is dropped by the manufacturer. It just won't be a connected device, and you won't be able to start a load of laundry in New Jersey from a cell phone in Hong Kong. No great loss.
Who the fuck asked for a toaster with the ability to send you a text when the toast is done?
My grandparents bought a washing machine, a fridge, a freezer and a toaster when they got married. They used all of them until they moved into the retirement home.
Meanwhile, everything but the fridge my wife owned when I moved in eighteen years ago has been replaced at least once, some of them (washing machine) more than once, and the cycle seems to be speeding up. Things are made cheaper, with features no one is asking for helping to speed along the failure rate.
If you're lucky you have an older relative with a usable appliance they want to get rid of that just needs the odd belt or motor repair every ten years or so. If not, fuck you. You're buying a new one every six years or less. Crazy.
If you add IoT to a product, that means there's gold, copper, rare earths, etc. that should make recycling them a lot more attractive.
Maybe the separation processes and resulting waste aren't all that great for the environment but I would think there might be a silver lining here.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Pretty much soon you will have hardware that you subscribe to for monthly replacements..
If there was a place I could go to and get paid for the metal weight value of the stuff I don't want anymore (like when I junk a car), that would really entice me to quit just tossing my old junk into the nearest bin.
APPLE to thin and to hard to repair $5000 imac pro is really bad storage locked to the T2 chip on board as well?
While I can understand the point of making a laptop thin to decrease the weight of an object people normally travel with, turning a fucking iMac into a sheet of fat glass was just fucking stupid. There's functionally thin, and then there's designs that purposely make it impossible to repair or upgrade.
For those in the latter group, I say impose a 20% tax. At some point vendors need to learn to not be so fucking greedy and purposely make products that fail prematurely to bolster revenue streams and poison the planet.
Disagreed. The tax should be 100% :D
I just wonder what's going to happen when all the people spending $300-500 on wireless headphones find out they have a glued-in non-replacable battery that will turn their expensive "investment" into landfill within about 3 years.
It's an environmental nightmare, but will they go out and repeat the same mistake for another $300-500 or realize a wire isn't all that bad a lot of the time?
"As we add computing and radios to more things"
*I* sure as fucking hell don't do any such thing. Stop saying "we".
We installed two Lutron "smart dimmers" in our living room. Haven't even hooked up the network bridge yet, but they work just fine as regular dimmers for now. I'm guessing long after the bridge is no longer supported, they will still turn the overhead lights on and off.
The solution is simple, double the mandated warranty period. Let companies worry about keeping the products working for that long, and while some people will choose to replace before the warranty is up, they will be useful longer to the next owner. Less will get thrown out.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Right, people here tend to appreciate full sentences and proper grammar.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Most of IoT devices don't need to be IoT in the first place, but of course marketing people (and their shills, of which there are many) convince people that they 'need' these things for 'reasons'. Anyone with a functioning ability to reason can see that 99% of them are pointless complexity added to things that don't need them and really don't provide any benefit.
The type of trash the UN is made up of is much more damaging to the Earth than old Amazon kindles.
Tax will fund the eWaste recycling infrastructure. Problem solved.
Nuff said!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I bet the gold concentration in IoT trash is way higher than that in the "ores" being exploited nowadays. Likewise for silver, palladium & co.
It's just the industry is too lazy to change their processes while there's no financial incentive. And sometimes, greasing politician's palms to buy some law turns out to be cheaper than thinking about new processes.
That's why I'd *love* to see VW's Winterkorn in jail (as sceptical of jails I am otherwise). Better even, to see VW going broke over that behaviour.
I'm sorry, I do not understand the verbs "to thin" nor "to hard".
The solution is simple, double the mandated warranty period. Let companies worry about keeping the products working for that long, and while some people will choose to replace before the warranty is up, they will be useful longer to the next owner. Less will get thrown out.
Or maybe tax the actual cost of disposal. When you sell an object, you have to pay the present value of the cost of disposal.
The problem is environmental cost is an externality that isn't incorporated into price, so there is *zero* incentive for companies to make their products last longer than required for reputation or warranty reasons. We can build products to last decades, but we build them to last a few years because there's no harm to the manufacturer in doing so.
I think we're at the point of a recycling tax for e-waste. That is, not only does their purchase incur a sales tax but also a recycling tax, so that when the item is recycled (mandated by law), funds have been set aside for their handling/recycling, and/or the person who turns it in gets a return deposit, perhaps.
Also, I'm still waiting to hear about a very useful IoT device that didn't exist 5 years ago. Whenever I hear someone rave about some new purchase, I poke a hole in it within a minute when we walk through the realities of its use.