If you’ve been nice, you probably got some neat new gadgets and gear upgrades. Congrats! Now it’s time to responsibly recycle your old, unwanted gadgets. They may have overstayed their welcome with you, but chances are good that someone, somewhere can use it for years to come. Gizmodo, in an update to its holiday recycling […]
CES 2012: Samsung’s secret to climbing the sustainability rankings
Video: While the press flocked to Samsung’s sexy ultrabooks and dazzling displays (it has its own 55-inch OLED, *drool*) during CES, something no less important went under-reported. It turns out the company has something to say about its products before and after they leave the factory. In the YouTube video below, the company offers a glimpse […]
Stat of the day: Feds dispose 10K computers… a week
How much e-waste does the U.S. government generate? According to General Services Administration (GSA) head Martha Johnson, “By some estimates, the federal government goes through 10,000 computers a week.” And that’s not the only staggering statistic in this Washington Post/Bloomberg article that examines the steps the GSA and EPA are taking to combat e-waste and […]
Banned! Apple nixes conflict mineral-y, e-waste-y Phone Story app
Game maker with a message, Molleindustria (NSFW), may have stumbled on a sure-fire way to shine a light on the dark side of the electronics industry: create an iOS app about it and get it banned by Apple. Long story short, the company created a game called Phone Story based on the unsavory practices surrounding the […]
E-waste bills hit Capitol Hill
Earlier today, I featured this story at CIO.com in the Top 10 about the Responsible Electronic Recycling Act, which places explicit restrictions on e-waste, closing loopholes that allows recyclers to pick off the choice parts from discarded electronics and ship off the rest. The hope is to stop the deplorable environmental and health conditions at […]
Sony’s Bloggie 3D: A gadget maker finally embraces the teardown
This is neat. Sony’s own blog, SGNL, has done something pretty unique for a consumer electronics company. It embraced the teardown (sub req’d)! Engadget observes that while the video smacks of publicity, it’s unprecedented for a top-tier electronics maker to sanction an on-camera teardown of one of its products, with a prominent member of the […]
U.N. to StEP up e-waste monitoring
The electronics industry’s dirty little secret is about to get more international attention thanks to a U.N. program to monitor where our discarded gadgets end up. The New York Daily News is reporting that a United Nations program called StEP (Solving the E-Waste Problem) will monitor ports in Asia and West Africa to help pinpoint […]
Apple’s pentalobe screws for the iPhone take “planned obsolescence to the next level”
That’s what iFixit’s CEO, Kyle Wiens, thinks about Apple’s latest attempt to thwart hardware hackers. And it’s hard to disagree with him. While Apple has made enormous strides in greening its gadget slate, it still falls short on one critical aspect of reducing e-waste: designing repairable electronics. In addition to its penchant for non-user replaceable […]
Designed for the dump: The Story of Electronics
Video: Conceptually, e-waste is a simple concept. Businesses and consumers buy up gadgets that nowadays cost more to repair than re-acquire or upgrade. This causes mountains of toxic-laden trash to pile up in landfills or “recycling” centers overseas. Obviously, not a good thing. The issue becomes more complex when when you take into account how […]
Bookmark this! iFixit
iFixit.com Who’s it for? Gadget lovers, DIY types, green geeks Why should I bookmark this? Because you want to extend the life of your gadgets, hate e-waste and like to save money. OK, Tell me more. Sure thing! While writing about the green virtues of Dell’s touchscreen tablet, I realized that it had been a […]
