THE STORY OF ELECTRONICS NOTES
- When trying to sell lots of stuff 'designed for the dump' makes sense
- It is a key strategy for the company to make our electronics
- 'Designed for the dump'-Making stuff to be thrown away quickly
- Today's electronics are hard to upgrade, easy to break, and impractical to repair
- Moore's Law- Gordon Moore said that electronics designers could double processor speed every 18 months
- Bosses of these designers got Moore's Law all twisted up
- They thought that every 18 months, we have to throw away our electronics and buy more
- This is causing a global toxic emergency
- Many of our gadgets are made from thousands of materials shipped from around the world
- Workers make the products with toxic chemicals like PVC and flame retardants
- This usually happens in far off places
- IBM studies show that workers making computer chips had 40% more miscarriages
- Same thing is happening all around the world
- Disposal is what we think of as the end of an electronics life
- Toxics in, Toxics out- All electronics are waiting to release toxic chemicals when we throw them away
- Some are slowly releasing toxic chemicals as we use them
- Old televisions have about 5 pounds of lead in them
- E-waste goes to landfills or is shipped across the world for someone else to recycle it
- Thrown out electronics are poisoning families in other countries taking apart these electronics
- Each year we make 25 million tons of e-waste
- Get dumped, burned or recycled
- Problems of electronics are created by the companies ignore environmental costs
- It is all about externalizing the true cost
- Instead of paying to make facilities safe, workers are with their health
- Instead of paying to redesign using fewer toxics, villagers pay losing their clean drinking water
- Externalizing costs allow companies to keep 'design for the dump'
- Companies get the profits while everyone else pays
- Making companies deal with e-waste is called extended producer responsibility or product take back
- This would cause companies to create electronics that are longer lasting, less toxic and more recyclable
- Take back laws are popping up all over Europe and Asia
- Many cities and states in US are passing similar laws
- These laws need to be protected and strengthened
- Don't export the 'recycling'
- Choose greener products
- Choices in store are limited to choices by designers and policy makers
- Companies should be creating electronics that are designed to last.