[ Thanks to jhansonxi for this link.
]
“What happens to the discarded electronics, which
represent one million tons of electronic waste (e-waste) annually?
Many are shipped to developing countries and illegally processed to
recover precious metals, using processes that dangerously pollute
the air and water with lead, dioxins, and other toxins. Recent work
by Erica Plambeck, Professor of Operations, Information, and
Technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Qiong
Wang of Alcatel-Lucent Bell Laboratories, points to a solution
— one that slows down the rate of new product introductions.
This, in turn, reduces the speed with which consumers replace the
electronics they’ve purchased, and decreases the mountains of
e-waste accumulating around the planet.“Numerous governments already regulate e-waste disposal.
California, for example, charges consumers recycling fees when they
purchase new electronic products. Certain members of the European
Union put responsibility for e-waste squarely in manufacturers’
hands by requiring them to collect and dispose of their products at
the end of the product life cycle. Plambeck and Wang show that,
when properly implemented, such regulations can significantly
reduce the amount of e-waste produced each year.”