Abel Lockhart
Professor Crowe
Composition for Scientific World
9/29/2023
What a Waste
Pack your bags! Because your old laptop has been granted a one way ticket to one of our many luxurious landfills scattered around the globe. Pick your place! Latin america! Africa! Or perhaps right here in the smack dab center of the you S of A! How do we have so many locations you say? I’m glad you asked! In 2020, The United Nations Institute for Training and research came out with a statement that Americans produced 7 million tons of electronic waste. With an estimated total, projected by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, of 2,600 MSW landfills throughout the nation. Compared to your traditional waste such as diapers and plastic bottles, e-waste constitutes being the most toxic of waste. Are we to point fingers at the average American consumer for throwing out 41 pounds worth of damaged and old electronics? Or do we blame the manufacturers that don’t produce sustainable products?
The consumer does have access to recycling programs in their area, but the issue insists that there is not enough public attention to make a consumer gravitate to these options. Like did you know that you can give in your old technology at your local retailer such as Best buy and staples? Oh, you didn’t know that? Well how about the countless other drop off locations that can be found on the New York City Department of Sanitation website! It’s basic information like this that can be crucial on the influence of the consumers decisions when getting rid of old products. One can host a campaign tailored to the spreading of this information, and then transpiring into a movement. That movement becomes an assimilation towards a livelihood with values that are centered around sustainability and recycling. We have already seen a major influence made through the Global Warming movement. Many European countries like Sweden, Norway, and France are levying Taxes on carbon produced by manufacturers. Some countries have implemented these taxes as early as the 90’s, these Laws encourage companies to make way for innovation in technology. The global warming movement has also enacted community action as well. Colleges have begun teaching courses on the science of global warming and its impact. Public ad campaigns have surged and organizations have formed in order to push a change in the way that we live and regulate our society. I say we do reforms on policies in electronic design. Just like the carbon tax intended to reduce pollution, What if it became a standard to manufacture modular technology. The consumer will have more of an ease of access for the replacement and recycling of parts. Interchangeable part technology is not a new thing, Phonebloks was a major campaign ran by the One Army in 2010. It was a concept intended to challenge major electronic companies to produce modular phones. This led big name brands such as Google to start Project Ara in 2012. intending to create modular phones, Google abandoned the project in 2016 due to reports of heavy expenses that came with the research and production of this new technology. Along with the expense came the death of the director, which led to its loss in full support to continue the project. However, A Dutch company started in 2013, Fairphone, is producing modular phones where you can buy a vast selection of affordable hardware needed to replace damaged or faulty ones. If you get a cracked screen, you can buy a replacement at the price of one hundred bucks, compared to the traditional samsung and iphone you would have to pay double than the replacement that Fairphone offers. The cracked screen from a traditional phone can also render all of the hardware as useless, leading to the entire device being thrown out as a whole, Fairphone on the other hand eliminates that issue. Although, the Fairphone doesn’t have the capability of using the different hardware for its other versions, it is atleast a push in right direction of achieving phone modularity that will result in the reduction of E-waste.
The industry surrounding computers can be taken as an example where each company specializes in the production of certain parts. Not only will this lead to more adaptability into the consumers devices, but it will have a major benefit in companies as they focus all of their resources into one part of an electronic. The industry has to work as a team rather than each other to achieve this drastic increase in progress. If you want more storage then you can buy more hard drives, or ebay a hard drive with more capacity. There persist to be no modularity in phones. Right now we are looking at a rat race for the best software that is compatible with the advancement in hardware that simultaneously maintains the same size while being better in quality. What is not taken into account is the vast waste produced by these non modular devices.
But of course, it is reasonable for why there isn’t a simple process of being able to build such a compact modular device. A computer has much more space to play around with when it comes to hardware and is far more simplified due to a larger capacity in space. In order to achieve a modular industry we have to take computers as an example where there are individual companies that specialize in the manufacturing of certain parts. Nvidia being a company well known for their graphics cards, and Asus having a specialty in the production of motherboards, go in hand with one another as the consumer is able to build their own device that suits their needs. I hope to see the day when we question what parts are the best rather than seeking what phone is the best. With companies working together to have the adaptable software intended for the future mix of hardware.
