In 2018, China made global headlines when it banned the importation of foreign plastic and electronic waste. This fleeting news item exposed one of the dirty secrets of the Western world’s trash – that much of our garbage is, in reality, shipped elsewhere, many times under the shield of “recycling,” a little-known fact until China’s […]
After years of lawsuits over planned obsolescence and criticisms of its contributions to e-waste, Apple has finally created a self-service program for customers to repair their own products. The program, Self Service Repair, will include tools, manuals, and Apple parts for users to fix their own products when something goes awry. It is set to […]
October 14th is International E-Waste Day, and, to raise awareness about this growing problem, the waste electrical and electronic equipment forum, or WEEE Forum, has published an alarming statistic. In 2021, human beings will discard an estimated 57.4 million tonnes (approximately 63.3 million U.S. tons) of electronic waste. That waste will outweigh the Great Wall […]
By John Marshall As the athletes take the podium and, with a slight bow, have their medals placed around their necks, they will be happy to have landed in the top three. For the people behind the Tokyo Medal Project, they’ll be happy that those Olympic medals are there in the first place. The project […]
By Doug Johnson Laptops, phones and tablets come out in new, flashier upgrades each year, and consumers lap them up, eager to own the latest desirable models with the most cutting-edge features. But with every upgrade, older models mount up in landfills around the world. In 2019, we generated a record 53.6 million metric tons […]
All those phones, computers and tablets we rely on are dependent on mined resources. Extracting and processing those resources accounts for nearly half of our greenhouse gas emissions, which is why the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan calls for “initiatives for the entire life cycle of products, from design and manufacturing to consumption, repair, […]
By Tim Schauenberg Technician Christopher Olk concentrates hard as he removes the broken drive from a DVD player and pushes it back in again. “If it’s the mechanics or the electronics, I can fix it,” explains the 26-year-old, who is working on his Ph.D. in battery technology at Aachen University. “If the chip or the […]
When our smartphones, televisions or other gadgets stop working, it seems like the only choice we have is to get rid of it. This never-ending stream of electronic waste has created mountains of toxic trash that’s hazardous to people and the planet. That’s why consumers and lawmakers in the U.S. and Europe are fighting back […]
By Seokheun Choi It seems like every few months there’s a new cellphone, laptop or tablet that is so exciting people line up around the block to get their hands on it. While the perpetual introduction of new, slightly more advanced electronics has made businesses like Apple hugely successful, the short shelf life of these […]
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