The future of the environment. Popular Science has a nice article on the how designers are planning to increase the products eco friendliness during both manufacture and recycling. Apparently, for most people a laptop lasts only three years before either being stored or simply discarded. Couple this with the expected worldwide laptop sales of 150 million in 2009 and you potentially end up with a very large electronics junk heap. So what is being done?
The article identifies specific issues with laptop production and solutions that have been made available by advances in technology, while others make you wonder why we were not doing that in the first place.
Read the full aritcle here
- via Core77
While I'm thrilled with the idea of several of the planned solutions (and really should look at solar panels to charge household appliances), I'm also struck by the paradox of commerce... the one thing laptop manufacturers can't do is build laptops that are more durable and don't need replacing every 18 months, as that'd dramatically reduce their market.
I'd love a laptop that took five years to break instead of two.
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