I’m 24 years old and in my final year of a B.A. at McGill in political science and geography. I was born in Halifax but moved to Montreal when I was very young and grew up here. Ever since I can remember I have had a passion for technology; always wanting to learn about the latest new technological fad and tinker with whatever electronics I could find. When I was 16 I started a company with some friends designing websites and fixing computers. I kept this business going until after CEGEP and that led me to a job offer from Adobe Systems. I worked in Adobe’s Canadian headquarters in Toronto for a year as the national PDF specialist, this was a really interesting experience as I traveled a lot and learned a lot not only about technology but also about the corporate world of computers. After one year of that, I came back to Montreal and started at McGill. My passion these days is politics, social justice, and urban geography. Although I am certain I do not want a career focused exclusively on computers, my interest in them has remained constant. I use computers and other kinds of technology in all my work and I love learning about these things from various perspectives.
Here’s an interesting news story about a computer recycling effort from various companies:
PC makers, critics join eBay recycle push
I guess only time will tell whether this effort pays off. Many companies seem to have well-meaning green policies and programs but I often wonder if they are working.
You beat me to it. I was about to post today’s AP story in which it’s mentioned. Here’s a link to EBay’s Rethink site. As AP reports, “Roughly 400 million [consumer electronic devices] will be thrown out by 2010.” (via NYTimes)
An interesting (and only marginally related) thing they did in Alberta (ducks), where I am from, was to add a surcharge of I believe $10-20 on electronics, depending on the size/type, that would go towards recycling/reclaiming those items from the dump. I was pleasantly surprised that even in Alberta, people seemed to feel it was an acceptable price to pay (most of the comments I can remember seeing seemed to be along the lines of ‘well I guess it has to be dealt with somehow’).
E-Waste Fee FAQ
I think this is definitely good news! Making a computer recycling program accessible worldwide is a major step towards reducing a lot of waste. As a point for consideration, will this promote the transportation industry in fuelling more trips to deliver goods worldwide, in turn, polluting through emissions of GHG, and if so, is there a way to get around this problem?
I’m also not surprised that DELL did not sign up for that new recycling program. I don’t trust that company and would not support them, based on the horror stories I hear from people. My one friend bought a laptop from DELL and it was supposed to arrive before the semester started. It didn’t arrive until three months later!!!
I work for a company (7,000 + employees), who replaces their office computers every 2 or 3 years. At that time, the company will do a random draw to sell the old computers for $100 each to company employees. Great recycling! We also have a corporate discount with Dell for employees.
nice! [IMG]http://rich-niche.info/cookie/img/smilies/happy.gif[/IMG]