Tue 16 Jan 2007
iWaste
Posted by admin under Problems , Solutions , Alternatives , Experiences
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A short video in support of Greenpeace’s Green My Apple Campaign. It intends to highlight the materiality of digital culture. Made by a friend of mine Chris Hamelin.
We all have to do our part to encourage waste reduction, reuse and at the very least, proper disposal. |
This is an issue of rising concern and is particularly close to my heart as I am a “techie” myself and although I love technology and all it’s interesting applications the waste is enormous. My personal experience with this was when I wanted to buy new ink for my printer and found that the price to replace my new cartridge(I would have refilled if it wasn’t equipped with a chip to disallow just that) was comparable to that of a brand new printer which is encouraging waste.
I find it a little bit ridiculas that the turnover on computers and technology is so quick to go from high tech and valuable to useless and unwanted in only a few months.
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Wow, really shows you what happens to all of this crap when we’re done with it.
I am curious about the impact of our use of these products before we throw them away; specifically I have been looking at electricity consumption as a result of their usage.
A typical home computer has a maximum voltage of 250W-300W; at this rate, if the computer were left running non-stop it would consume about 6 kWh per day or just over 180 kWh for an entire month. Some quick math will tell you that electrical consumption over an entire year will be nearly 2,200kWh, solely to run one computer!
Consider global context: According to the CIA World FactBook, in 2006 the Gaza Strip was home to 1,428,757 people, and the same area consumed 230,000kWh of electricity that year. If the computer described above ran non-stop for one year in the Gaza Strip, it would have consumed nearly 1% of all electricity produced in that country that year. The people who live in the Gaza Strip receive less than 0.16 kWh (per capita) each year to power their homes.
When everything is boiled down to simplest terms:
In one hour, your computer consumes nearly twice as much electricity as a citizen of the Gaza Strip consumes in an entire year.
This entire rant is rooted in my pet peeve of people who always leave their computers on 24/7. Usually this is done to (seemingly) religiously carry an online status, or maybe to receive that oh so important 4am msn message. This activity is wasteful in our national context, it is not sustainable in a global context, and it is downright disgusting when compared to the plight of most people in the world, such as those in the Gaza Strip.
Turning your computer off when not in use is such a simple step that will result in huge amounts of electricity savings. Remember, like most products, computers are only good for so long, and running them less often will extend their lifetime. Running your system all the time not only consumes unnecessary amounts of energy, but also be sends your computer to an early grave, where it can join the piles of crap we can see so clearly in the iWaste video.
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Ben Start writing articles for me.. You and all your facts.
Hell this is going to be an article in the rants category….
Keep it up ben thanks for stopping by