#electronicwaste — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #electronicwaste, aggregated by home.social.
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#USPIRG - #ElectronicWaste Graveyard
Expiring software or server support is responsible for up to 1.7 billion pounds of #EWaste over past decade.
by Nathan Proctor, Lucas Gutterman
April 10, 2025, Updated Jul 14, 2026"Increasingly, we’re pushed to trash tech that should still work, such as #Chromebooks, phones, and smart home devices, just because the software has expired or lost support. This database lists more than 100 tech products that have stopped working after manufacturers dropped support. It calculates the total weight of all these dead devices which have joined the 68 million tons of electronic waste disposed of each year.
"When software expires, or web cloud services end, consumers and schools are pushed to replace devices that should still work. For example, our 'Chromebook Churn' report found that tens of thousands of laptops were being replaced by schools because the software had expired. Since the graveyard was released in 2025, we have tracked a wave of new product shutdowns, some affecting a handful of niche gadgets, and one, Microsoft’s end of support for Windows 10, affecting 400 million computers at once.
"We now estimate that up to 1.7 billion pounds of electronic waste has been created by expired software and canceled cloud services since 2014. The largest contributor by far was the expiration of #Windows10 resulting in up to 1.6 billion pounds of electronic waste from PCs that can’t upgrade to #Windows11.
"13 #AmazonKindle models have also joined the graveyard this year. On May 20, 2026, Amazon cut off store access for 13 older Kindle models released between 2007 and 2012 — devices that, in many cases, are still being used daily by their original owners more than a decade later. The e-readers still turn on, still display books already downloaded, and still hold a charge. What they can no longer do is buy or download anything new, effectively ending their useful life as e-readers for many owners. Amazon’s shutdown means these e-readers can’t even borrow books from users’ local public #libraries.
"For the planet, this lack of support results in a death by a thousand server support cuts. This e-waste adds up. At the very least we need lifetime transparency for tech—we should know how long manufacturers guarantee the tech we buy will work before we buy it."
Read more:
https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/electronic-waste-graveyard/#SolarPunkSunday #RightToRepair #RightToRepairLaws #PlannedObsolescence #FixIt #ReuseRepairRestore
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The main visual part of this project is finished. It started during a lab reorganization: old components that still work but disappear forever once they go back in the box. So we put them on the wall instead — breadboards, opened devices, circuit boards on display for everyone to see and take if useful.
#hackerspace #makerspace #openworkshop #MunichMakerLab #MuMaLab #Kreativquartier #Kreativlabor #DIYMunich #electronicwaste #repairculture #pcbart
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Hoshiarpur e waste drive collects 1.5 tonnes of e waste by “Beyond the I” foundations run by Ms Manveen Singh
#TycoonWorld #Hoshiarpur #EWasteDrive #WorldEnvironmentDay #BeyondTheI #ManveenSingh #EWasteRecycling #EnvironmentalAwareness #GreenInitiative #Sustainability #ElectronicWaste #RecycleResponsibly #ClimateAction #EcoFriendly #WasteManagement #EnvironmentalConservation #PunjabNews #CommunityImpact #GoGreen #CleanEnvironment
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#GoldExtraction from #EWaste gets 10 times more efficient with new sponge material
Researchers developed a nanoscale cross-dimensional composite material via self-assembly of two-dimensional graphene oxide and one-dimensional chitosan macromolecules.
By Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Oct 27, 2024
"Researchers have developed a new type of material that’s 10 times more efficient at extracting gold from e-waste than previous adsorbents. Developed by chemists and materials scientists at the National University of Singapore, the material is a type of sponge made of #GrapheneOxide and #chitosan [shrimp shells].
"The material can reportedly transform the way gold is extracted from electronic wastes, which has been described so far as a dirty business with low yields and results in toxic #pollutants.
"The cheaper, cleaner and efficient method was tested by researchers using real e-waste provided by a recycling company."
[...]
"While the present work focused on gold, the team say the technique could be adapted to recover other valuable metals such as #silver, #platinum or #palladium from #ElectronicWaste or even #mining residues. And that is not all: as well as e-waste, the technology might be applied to a wider range of environmental cleaning efforts, such as filtering out #HeavyMetals from #PollutedWater sources or industrial effluents, reported Physics World."
Read more:
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/gold-extraction-from-e-waste-sponge
Article in Physics World - Eco-friendly graphene composite recovers gold from e-waste24 Oct 2024
https://physicsworld.com/a/eco-friendly-graphene-composite-recovers-gold-from-e-waste/
#SolarPunkSunday #NoGoldMining
#EWasteRecycling #MetalsExtraction #Electronics #RareEarthMinerals #Recycling #NewTechnology #ShrimpShells -
#ZeroWasteAotearoa - Mine #EWaste for #gold, not beautiful landscapes
February 16, 2026
"As a fast-track consent is sought for a major gold mine in #CentralOtago and another has already been granted in #Coromandel, #ZeroWaste #Aotearoa is calling upon the government to mine #ElectronicWaste, not beautiful landscapes, for gold and other precious metals.
"E-waste contains a significant concentration of gold, with one metric tonne of electronic waste containing up to 800 times more gold than a tonne of mined ore. While precious metals (including gold, silver, copper) make up approximately 60% of the composition of some e-waste, gold specifically is highly concentrated, with a single tonne of circuit boards containing roughly 39 grams of gold.
"#NewZealand currently generates 99,000 tonnes of e-waste every single year. Approximately 98 percent ends up in landfill or is disposed of illegally, according to the Ministry for the Environment.
" 'At present the voluntary product stewardship scheme means that we have one of the lowest rates of e-waste recovery in the world. We are literally throwing gold away into landfills while proposing to dig it up elsewhere in some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes. It is the height of madness,' says Sue Coutts of Zero Waste Aotearoa.
" 'Like many people across the country, we are gravely concerned about the environmental impact of gold mining. We think that there are much better ways to get these valuable resources – and ensure that they stay in circulation forever, not dumped in landfills.'
" 'The World Gold Council says that only 7% of gold is used in tech but 27% of worldwide gold production is already from recycling. This is more than 4 times what we need for tech – there is no valid reason to dig up any more of our precious #ecosystems.'
" '#ProductStewardship would create a pathway for a new industry: one built on resource recovery of valuable materials and a #CircularEconomy.
"NZ company #MINTInnovation relocated to #Sydney because they could tap into flows of e-waste from extended producer responsibility schemes that collect electronic waste in #Australia .
"They chose not to invest in NZ because there is no regulated e-waste scheme here. That’s $60m in turnover that will be dropping into the Australian economy every year instead of ours.
"E-waste was declared a priority product in June 2020 requiring the establishment of a regulated product stewardship scheme under the #WasteMinimisationAct. Yet six years on, a mandatory scheme is not in place and no further work is being done.
"Electronic waste, or e-waste, includes discarded electronic devices such as smartphones, computers, and televisions. E-waste is a rich source of precious metals and #RareEarth elements, including gold, #silver, #platinum, and #palladium, used in #CircuitBoards and components."
Source:
https://zerowaste.co.nz/media-statement-mine-e-waste-for-gold-not-beautiful-landscapes/#SolarPunkSunday #NoGoldMining #EWasteRecycling #MetalsExtraction #Electronics
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ICYMI - From 2017
Levels of #EWaste soar in #Asia as gadgets become affordable, UN says
Amount of electronic waste up 63% in five years, with China’s more than doubling, United Nations University report finds
Agence France-Presse
Sun 15 Jan 2017 11.29 EST"Levels of #ElectronicWaste are rising sharply across #Asia, as higher incomes mean hundreds of millions of people can afford #smartphones and other #gadgets, according to a UN study.
"The amount of e-waste in Asia has risen by 63% in five years, a report by United Nations University said, warning of the need to improve #recycling and disposal methods across the region to prevent serious #environmental and health consequences.
"Ruediger Kuehr, the report’s co-author and head of UNU’s sustainable cycles programme, said: 'For many countries that already lack infrastructure for environmentally sound e-waste management, the increasing volumes are a cause for concern.'
"For many years, China and other Asian countries have recycled discarded electronics from wealthier countries in rudimentary and often unsafe factories.
"But the report said Asia has become a major source of e-waste due to increasingly affluent #consumers buying electronic items including #phones, #tablets, #refrigerators, #computers and #televisions.
"China’s generation of e-waste more than doubled between 2010 and 2015, the period of the study, according to the report.
"#HongKong generated the highest amount of e-waste in Asia in 2015, an average of 21.7kg (3.4st) per person.
"#Singapore and #Taiwan created just over 19kg per person in 2015.
"#Cambodia, #Vietnam and the #Philippines were among the lowest e-waste generators, with an average of about 1kg per person."
#Consumerism #Capitalism #Crapitalism #PlannedObsolescence #SupportLegacyProducts #Landfills #RightToRepair #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #RepairReuseRecycle #Consumerism #Anticonsumerism #EnvironmentalPollution
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ICYMI - From 2016
The Burning Truth Behind an #EWasteDump in #Africa
Ending the #toxic smoke rising from an iconic dump in #Ghana will take more than curbing Western waste
by Adam Minter
January 13, 2016"They are some of the most iconic photos in environmental journalism: young African men, often shirtless, standing over small fires fueled by digital detritus imported from richer countries. The toxic smoke swirls around them and over #Agbogbloshie, the roughly 20-acre scrap yard in the heart of #AccraGhana, where these men live and work.
"During the last decade, some of the world’s most respected media organizations have transformed Agbogbloshie into a symbol of what’s believed to be a growing crisis: the export—or dumping—of electronic waste from rich, developed countries into Africa. It’s a concise narrative that resonates strongly in a technology-obsessed world. There’s just one problem: The story is not that simple..."
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/burning-truth-behind-e-waste-dump-africa-180957597/#ElectronicWaste #SupportLegacyProducts #Consumerism #Capitalism #Crapitalism #CorporateColonialism
#PlannedObsolescence
#Landfills #RightToRepair #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #RepairReuseRecycle
#Consumerism
#Anticonsumerism #EnvironmentalPollution