Kindle Users: Environmentally-Aware or Suckers?
10 Dec 2009 2 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: Kindle e-waste, not eco-friendly
I have been hearing a lot of buzz regarding the Amazon Kindle as a green option over books lately. However, I am uncomfortable with jumping onto this wagon… unfortunately, I’m finding it quite difficult to track down any useful information to help me make a final decision. I am, however, leaning toward “chump bait.”
For those of us who prefer to be “holier-than-thou” in most green product arenas, the Kindle may seem like a dream come true. What’s this, you say? No more paper, no more books? No more dilettante-environmentalists’ dirty looks? Think further. Look beyond the hype on this one for just a minute with me. Before the Kindle came along, I never heard one single environmentalist complain that there are too many books.
In fact, literacy is dwindling in many of the world’s most-developed countries due to the other forms of entertainment out there. People simply are not reading as much as they used to. One might go so far as to say that we, on the whole, are becoming less intelligent as our technologies become more expansive.
The paper that most environmentalists complain about comes in the forms of office, institutional, and industrial waste–memos that could just as easily (and almost definitely more effectively) be sent via email, school handouts that can and should be posted on the web, pages printed on only one side, sublimation and foil papers discarded in huge quantities after one use. These are the true culprits of wasted paper. The only people who throw away books are people who do not read, and therefore see no value in one, in the first place.
Now I could very easily turn this post into a rant about the disintegration of our society as a whole–how most people have either become so apathetic toward self-improvement, or how they simply have a complete inability, due to the unfortunate societal infrastructure that makes it just about impossible to give them the foundations they need to sate their childhood curiosities in a way that promotes the lifelong desire to learn. I could write pages on this… but I won’t. Instead, I would just like to cite the pros and cons of this new technology for you to decide for yourself. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction: for every decision we make, there is a consequence. Whichever devil you choose, make sure that you look him in the eye first.
I understand that the interface of a Kindle operates with a display in black and white (this cuts down on a lot of energy that would be used in other digital displays, such as laptops and I-Phones). This is good!
I understand that a Kindle’s outer is made of plastic. I have found no information online stating whether or not there is a recycling symbol stamped on that plastic. This is bad!
“Kindle promotes reading where you could not read before.” … Really? Where could you not pull out a standard paperback that you could break out a Kindle?
Kindle boasts full 3G wireless coverage in more than 100 countries. Awesome. More wireless things to mess with the bee population. May I remind everyone that if all of our bees die, the human population has less than 5 years before we all completely die out from starvation? Without pollination, we have no food. And for all you geniuses out there saying we can rely solely on meat, what is that meat gonna eat in the meantime before we eat it? Rabbits and deer eat plants. Plants can’t live without pollination. Conclusion? Effed.
Ever heard of E-waste? This is bad!
*The definition of e-waste (as per ewasteguide.info): “used as a generic term embracing all types of waste containing electrically powered components. E-waste contains both valuable materials as well as hazardous materials which require special handling and recycling methods.”
For Amazon’s recycling program, go here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200197550
First, I’d like you to think about how many people you know personally who recycle their batteries and electronics once they bite the dust. Not many–shameful!! Now, take a moment to think about where things go after they are recycled by the good people who actually care enough to do so. Even accredited recycling facilities who tout “responsible recycling” stateside have been caught repeatedly shipping their product back overseas to China. China is a huge nation… and yet, almost all of that e-waste ends up in just one area: Guiyu, city of junk and smoke.
There are no recycling centers in Guiyu. Instead, there are individuals who spend their short lives (and they do die young) disassembling our “old” cellphones, laptops, and desktops. It is important to include that many of these items were discarded not because they stopped working, but only because their owner decided they wanted the next big thing. Once these items are disassembled, the heavy-metal guts (gold, lead, cadmium, etc) are melted down in open-air smelting pots while the laborers squat down next to them wearing no mask whatsoever. Others use sodium cyanide baths to extrude the metals. They get sick nearly right away. These metals are then collected and sold for further refinement, and the waste is dumped into the nearby Lianjiang River. No fish swim these waters. Children are dying slowly of cancer and lead poisoning from the river. Adults are literally sick with the pollution. Yet they come from far-flung provinces to work here because the wages are 8 times higher than most other jobs.
This is where many/most of your discarded electronic items go. This is probably where your Kindle will end up, when it inevitably dies.
Books are made of paper. Paper is made from wood pulp. Or recycled wood pulp. You can make a pact to buy only used books. Or, you can use your almighty dollar to support only companies that print on post-consumer recycled paper with soy-based inks. But please don’t write them off for a psyched-up product that simply won’t last even a quarter as long. We have books that have survived centuries–how long will an electronic reader hold up?
All I can ask is that we educate ourselves before we give in to the hype.
