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Every year, an estimated 400 million units of obsolete electronics are scrapped. By 2010, this figure will rise to three billion units. While advances in technology continue to improve and enrich our lives, product lifecycles are getting shorter and shorter. And that means an increasing stockpile of end-of-life equipment that needs to be managed. When discarded, much of this equipment ends up in landfills in the US, or is exported to third world countries.
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Almost all consumer electronics (mobile phones, computers, monitors, printers, etc.) contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury, arsenic and a broad variety of other materials that pose a threat to the environment and health. The challenge is to extend device usage to end-of-life, safely mine existing eWaste for materials, and design new devices with planned reclamation using reclaimed materials where possible.
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With Apple selling hundreds of million iPods worldwide, the potential for Ewaste in huge. They don't last forever, and tempting new models are always just around the corner. There are alternatives: used or broken iPods could be sold on eBay, where hundreds of Apple's music players are listed for sale for parts or refurbishing. But many consumers can't be bothered with finding out how to list a product, and don't want to deal with potential customers.
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Our gadgets will eventually break or get replaced. But it's hard to know just what to do with the gadgets that get left behind. Some people stuff them in junk drawers. Most people won't simply junk their car -- they'd trade it in. Why can't that same school of thought apply to electronics?
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According to knowledgeable people who delved into streetlight details, public lighting uses up to 12 percent of the fossil fuel produced in the world. In Fairbanks, Alaska, where it’s dark half the year, street lighting accounts for 60 percent of the city’s electricity bill!
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For thousands of years, people have used forms of refrigeration to keep food and other objects cold. Keeping food cold helps slow the spoiling process and helps it last longer.Today more than 99% of American homes have a refrigerator. These are based on the compression of a gas into a liquid to absorb heat. The substance that is used for compression has most commonly been Freon, a substance which is harmful to the ozone layer. The insulation used in those refrigerators also contains harmful substances.
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Electronic waste or "e-waste" is a garbage type consisting of any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic devices. Due to the difficulty and cost of recycling them as well as lackluster enforcement of legislation, large amounts of used electronics have been sent to countries such as China, India, and Kenya, where lower environmental standards and working conditions make processing them more profitable.
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Most consumer electronic products are manufactured from various materials and assembled in complex ways which makes them difficult to disassemble economically. Unless products can be disassembled and the different streams of materials separated to a component level, the product cannot be recycled. For this reason, they are disposed of in landfills. The hazardous portions of these products pose a significantly increasing environmental threat
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There is no magic way to clean a pool easily. It usually takes a lot of time, effort and money to clear up a typical "swampy" pool. It is certainly best if you never let your water get this dirty, however most pool owners experience problems from time to time. If you, like most pool owners, hate to clean them, this is the best sustainable, inexpensive and cost effective solution today.
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More than 15 billion batteries are thrown away each year, and with the increasing demand for portable power by electronic devices, the battery has not caught up with the needs of modern life.
Traditional rechargeable batteries have never been truly portable as they are dependent on chargers or adaptors, and so most consumers prefer single use alkaline cells.
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