[ale] linking MS to E-waste

[Jim Kinney]

On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 11:00 AM, Atlanta Geek <atlantageek at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been reading 'Hot Flat and Crowded' by Thomas Friedman and a
> point was made that we should design for sustanibility. Appliances
> should never go into the dump. Government policies should be such that
> it makes more sense to refurbish and reuse rather than to just buy a
> new appliance. (Maybe a huge sales tax on new goods)

Huge sales tax on disposable goods coupled with a huge tax on
packaging and escalating disposal fees and truly crushing prison terms
for people involved in dumping. Fines based on income not flat dollar
amounts. Would anyone really toss a cup out the window knowing it will
cost you 20 hours pay for the first offence? Stores no longer provide
disposable shopping bags. My favourite waste is the grocery bagger
puts a gallon of milk into a bag alone. That jug handle is NOT going
to fail but that bag might.

> Anyway I thought the same case could be made about PCs. How many old
> PCs have been sent to the dump just because they got so loaded with
> viruses the user just decided to get a new PC with the newer MS OS.
> PCs seem to have a 3-4 year replace cycle which somewhat corresponds
> to the release of OSes by Microsoft.
>
> So what's your opinion. Anyone more articulate than me find this
> remotely interesting.

I have seen that process and find it beneficial (for me!). Once the
sheeple all upgrade to the new dung heap from Redmond, they have no
need for their prior system and I can often get them for free or
nearly free. Wipe drives, install Linux of choice and blow out the
dust bunnies and deliver a newly working machine to someone who has
nothing like it. Every release of Linux also take more system
resources (128MB RAM is really BARE MINIMUM these days) but the system
resources lag micropoop by at least one generation.

Sadly, techno-waste is a rapidly growing component of the waste stream
and it is often toxic to process. Another thing that might help to
slow the trash pile growth is to include a disposal fee in the
purchase price. Arriving at that price will be a challenge as there
are many things in tech trash we really have no mechanism to process
the waste with. What _does_ happen to old circuit boards, fluorescent
bulbs, cell phones, burned CD's, etc?

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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III