Archive for the ‘Videos’
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Grenk releases video on electronic waste and the impact it has on the environment
Posted By: Brad Roderick
E-waste is an important issue, not just in the US or North America, but globally. Its an important issue on a number of fronts. Most people are aware that virtually every major city in the US that their landfills have been closed—theyre at maximum capacity now. So where does excess landfill material go? It has to be shipped somewhere. So were creating a problem somewhere else. Thats general landfill space, but when we look at electronic or e-waste space, the problem is a lot greater. In less scrupulous environments, e-waste is typically sold and bought by the pound and goes offshore.
China has significant problems in a couple of different provinces and regions right now because their whole economy is based on e-waste. In Hong Kong, one of the most beautiful cities on the planet, there are days when you cant breathe outside. The air is that thick, it makes you choke, its brown, its black. What happens with this e-waste is that there are certain chemicals; there are certain components that are of value say gold in electronic circuitry that they need to extract out of that. They do that by burning off the rest of the material. So there are toxic fumes there are toxic chemicals that are created when they try and extract the little bit of value out of this e-waste that here is. What happens to the rest of that material? It ends up being burned; it ends up being stockpiled in areas.
The thing about electronic waste: its growing, not just as a problem but its growing in terms of total units. What do we buy anymore that doesnt have some electrical or electronic componentry to it. But the two big ones that sometimes people forget are computer monitors. Those have to be handled in an environmentally appropriate way. They cant just be thrown into the garbage.
The other is the growing area of the home theatre stuff. Bigger and bigger screens and its all shorter life. So there is a growing amount of electronic waste that is being created and we have to find environmentally responsible ways to be able to deconstruct that material, to be able to truly recycle it in ways that are not just preferable but environmentally safe.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Expensive recycling costs lead to illegal dumping of electronic waste in Africa
Posted By: Brad Roderick
Here is an article from the United Kingdom highlighting the illegal trade of electronic waste from around the world.
London’s illegal trade in electronic E-waste
E-waste is our fastest growing form of rubbish. Eager for flat screens and HD pictures, London dumps more than 4,000 TVs daily.
These TVs are packed with lead and toxic metals, and the law requires all electricals to be recycled within the UK.
To avoid paying for proper disposal in the UK, criminals ship containers of electrical waste and illegally dump it in Africa.
But when our reporter Mark Jordan visited a dump site at the ‘Sodom and Gomorra’ slum in Ghana, he discovered tonnes of our E-waste that had been illegally shipped and dumped – some bearing the names of UK banks, health authorities and a police force.
This waste is dismantled for metals by children as young as five – unaware of the serious health hazards involved from heavy metals and carcinogenic agents.
The UK has banned the export of electrical waste, but that green law has turned toxic as criminals smuggle it out for recycling in one of the poorest countries on earth.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
How Green is the 2010 Winter Olympic Games: Recycled medals made from electronic waste
Posted By: Brad Roderick
With the Winter Olympics in full effect in Vancouver, I want to highlight some of the initiatives being taken to make the games more green. Here is a video from GreenopolisTV, explaining how this years Olympic medals in Vancouver are made from electronic waste.
Olympic Medals made with your recycled TV?
From: GreenopolisTV | February 17, 2010 | 1,572 views
For the first time in Olympic history, the medals at the Olympic Games contain gold, silver and copper that has been recovered from electronic waste (e-waste). Each medal was made with a tiny bit of the more than 140,000 tons of e-waste that otherwise would have been sent to Canadian landfills. More than 1,000 medals to be awarded at the Vancouver games this year.
The recovery of medals from e-waste is important, because it reduces demand for scarce metals such as gold and copper. Check in your community for e-waste recycling centers and drop off points and go for GOLD.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Green Up Your Office: Tips From Grenk’s Brad Roderick
Posted By: Brad Roderick
Over the last few years, there are better practices to be able to remanufacture, recycle, reduce and reuse materials than there ever have been before. I wanted to provide some tips and suggestions to green up your office. Some of the suggested office changes are energy saving lights, eco-friendly flooring, using recycled copier paper and replacing company vehicles with hybrids.
