A study has estimated that as many as 40 million unused gadgets are languishing in UK homes ...
.... Guilty as charged
In fact chargers are the largest number of items related to this fact. I have at least a dozen of these and all because there was no move to make charge points for phones or laptops etc compatible.
The study suggested that half of UK households had at least one unused electronic device and 45% of homes had up to five. My personal haul is three unused old phones, four old laptops + two being used, plus one digital camera is my shameful total. However in my defence, I only buy new when forced e.g Windows 7 demise in early AD 2020, means I have had to upgrade to Windows10 laptops (included in my count), and my current phone is still a Galaxy S5 ... I also set old laptops to Linux so perhaps I am not the worst offender.
Of course the irony is, that each of these devices contains multiple valuable and increasingly endangered rare earth elements, which we are running out of. Lack of these rare earth elements could well mean that mine and yours hauls may not get much bigger, as lack of them is threatening future manufacture of all these products.
For example the metal indium (which is required for touch screens, because it conducts electricity and is transparent), is a vital component of solar panels, something we're going to need a lot of it in the future. Indium mines, among many other rare earth elements, could run out within a century ..... then its bye bye solar panels, hearing aids, pacemakers, laptops etc etc ....
A few examples ....
But even the not so rare metals used in many devices, such as copper and silver, are finite resources. The problem is that much of this 'E-waste' is ending up stuck in our homes, or even in landfill, instead of being recycled.We reap what we sow .....
So what should we do with them? Well current advice is to either:
However, old PC's can be simply reused as home servers, or gaming server, or to store security video footage direct from cameras, or converted to Linux and reused as laptops. So look on the web for suggestions such as maybe dedicating your old PC to one of the various public distributed computing projects?
SETI@Home, where you can participate in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Folding@Home uses computing resources from all over the world to help study protein folding for medical research.
Important: Always remember to wipe the data (Backing up anything you want to keep, such as photos, software product keys, etc.), using software or the methods below before handing these items to a recycler, although council tips and responsible retailers are supposed to keep electronics secure before they recycled.
Either follow the instructions on the links provided above or for a quick way.
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| We All Have E-Clutter ...... |
.... Guilty as charged
In fact chargers are the largest number of items related to this fact. I have at least a dozen of these and all because there was no move to make charge points for phones or laptops etc compatible.
The study suggested that half of UK households had at least one unused electronic device and 45% of homes had up to five. My personal haul is three unused old phones, four old laptops + two being used, plus one digital camera is my shameful total. However in my defence, I only buy new when forced e.g Windows 7 demise in early AD 2020, means I have had to upgrade to Windows10 laptops (included in my count), and my current phone is still a Galaxy S5 ... I also set old laptops to Linux so perhaps I am not the worst offender.
Of course the irony is, that each of these devices contains multiple valuable and increasingly endangered rare earth elements, which we are running out of. Lack of these rare earth elements could well mean that mine and yours hauls may not get much bigger, as lack of them is threatening future manufacture of all these products.
For example the metal indium (which is required for touch screens, because it conducts electricity and is transparent), is a vital component of solar panels, something we're going to need a lot of it in the future. Indium mines, among many other rare earth elements, could run out within a century ..... then its bye bye solar panels, hearing aids, pacemakers, laptops etc etc ....
A few examples ....
- Tantalum - Used in surgical implants, electrodes for neon lights, turbine blades, rocket nozzles and nose caps for supersonic aircraft, hearing aids and pacemakers.
- Gallium - Used in medical thermometers, LEDs, solar panels, telescopes and has possible anti-cancer properties.
- Yttrium - Used in white LED lights, camera lenses and can be used to treat some cancers.
- Indium - Used in transistors, microchips, fire-sprinkler systems, as a coating for ball-bearings in Formula One cars and solar panels
But even the not so rare metals used in many devices, such as copper and silver, are finite resources. The problem is that much of this 'E-waste' is ending up stuck in our homes, or even in landfill, instead of being recycled.We reap what we sow .....
So what should we do with them? Well current advice is to either:
- Take them to your nearest electronics recycling point.
- Alternatively, your local waste dump should offer electronic waste recycling.
- If you buy a new product from a shop, then a high street retailer has an obligation to take back material when you buy a new product from them .... but Internet providers don't.
However, old PC's can be simply reused as home servers, or gaming server, or to store security video footage direct from cameras, or converted to Linux and reused as laptops. So look on the web for suggestions such as maybe dedicating your old PC to one of the various public distributed computing projects?
SETI@Home, where you can participate in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Folding@Home uses computing resources from all over the world to help study protein folding for medical research.
Important: Always remember to wipe the data (Backing up anything you want to keep, such as photos, software product keys, etc.), using software or the methods below before handing these items to a recycler, although council tips and responsible retailers are supposed to keep electronics secure before they recycled.
Either follow the instructions on the links provided above or for a quick way.
- For mobiles and in fact also laptops etc simply do a factory reset - this permanently loses all unsaved data.
- For Windows 7, use its built-in utility Disk Management that can be used to format a hard drive (which is good enough for a computer device which is going to a legitimate recycler) - Type “diskmgmt.msc” in the search box and press Enter to open Windows 7 Disk Management, then with Disk Management open, right click the drive you want to format and select Format.
I've always been very conscious of waste and my buying habits reflect that, ie. I hardly buy anything lest it becomes landfill. What I do buy lasts a long time as I will repair and make do. That's not to say that there aren't a couple of obsolete chargers around, that's unavoidable, but any that I find will be going in the small box of old electrical items on their way for recycling.
ReplyDeleteRenewables won't save our World, reduced consumption is the way to go - prevention is better than cure.
We currently use one-and-a-half Earths resources .... it actually looks like we won't learn until the great ecological crisis hits us and millions, or billions starve.
DeletePersonally, as a singleton in the foothills of the valley of death, I don't care, but if I had kids and grand kids I would be worried as hell.
Thanks for the comment.