INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Understand the full life cycle of a computer hardware
2. Identify the international standards for e-waste
3. Define Planned Obsolescence
4. Define the key issues computer hardware end-of-life
5. Critically evaluate the environmental and social impact of e-waste

As a computer science practitioner, you need to think about those.

Content Warning

The topics covered today are designed to inform, raise awareness of the impact of computer hardware. ​

However, some of the topics covered in today you may find distressing or depressing. Please do not hesitate to contact student wellbeing:

• An online registration form​ here (If the link doesn't work (due to expiration), please use the link below, and you should be able to find another URL for the form.)

• Virtual Drop-ins, and face-to-face drop-ins, more info

• Email mentalwellbeing@canterbury.ac.uk.​

Menti

• Go to www.menti.com and use this code (73771825)
• Or scan the QRCode

Discussion

1. Did any item breakdown for no apparent reason?​
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2. What did you do with it?​

Planned Obsolescence?

Planned Obsolescence

• ‘a policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of nondurable materials’.​
• Capitalism
• Sometime it could be a good thing (due to lifespan of some materiels)

Play me ->: Exploring the environmental costs of the electronics industry

• Upgrade and trade in schemes to sell it somewhere else in the world.

Life Cycle of Electronics

• A total of 61.1 billion tons of metal ores, fossil energy, and non-metallic minerals are extracted from Earth a year (2020 estimate).

• Telephones, for example, are made from as many as 42 different minerals, including aluminium, beryllium, coal, copper, gold, iron, limestone, silica, silver, talc and wollastonite.​

Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

• To show you the impact of mass manufacturing in different ways, e.g. reports.

• Electronics manufacturing processes utilise fluorinated compounds (FCs) for plasma etching intricate patterns, cleaning reactor chambers, and temperature control.​
  Link

• c-C4F8, which is a compound used as cleaning agent during the manufacturing process and may also be generated during the production of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, “Teflon”) and other fluoropolymers (Mühle et al., 2019), has increased 34% since 2011 to 1.75 ppt, although its ERF (Effective Radiative Force ) remains below 0.001 W/M2​ link

Breakdown of Global E-Waste in 2020

Do these statistics surprise you?​

What information is missing that would be relevant, or provide more context?​

GLOBAL E-WASTE IN KG/MT 2014-2030​

The World Counts

CFB

Now, use this tool to estimate CFP by either:

• Using this (https://bit.ly/3shpvnD) link
• Or scanning the QRcode

Media: Softening the Reality

Does this imagery remove you from the reality of the problem?​​

Contrasting worlds - discussion

• Why do we see this disparity around the world?​

• Are there laws governing e-waste?​

E-waste toxic components and hazards

E-waste Policy Worldwide

UN Sustainability Goals

The SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals) adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership​

E-waste is covered by which SDGs

E-waste is covered by which SDGs

SDG

Standards, Policies and Law

International Organization for Standardization

• ISO 14001 ​

  • Addresses various aspects of environmental management. It identifies and controls our environmental impact and helps constantly improve our environmental performance​

Standards, Policies and Law

U​​K – Health and Safety Executive

• Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013, the associated requirements for the recovery, reuse, recycling and treatment of WEEE.

Linear Suppy Chain and Circular Economy Practices

Ideal 100% Recycling

What can you do?

- Any Ideas?

What can you do?

• Use your products for as long as possible. Repair it if you can.​

• Choose products that are designed to enable a more circular model and can live multiple lives by being repaired, upgraded and refurbished.​

• Consider if someone else might find the product useful when you no longer use it. Sell it ​​or donate to charity. How about upcycling? ​

• Make sure the product is recycled in a safe and responsible way at the end of its usable life.​

Restart Project

• Right to Repair Project

• Home - Right to Repair Europe

• What if software could make your phone impossible to repair? - Right to Repair Europe

Task & Discussion

• Task-1: Discussion Board of Ethics and Computing Hardware:
  
  

  • Go to the module's Blackboard page/Week-2 to access Padlet page.
    
    

  • Or acess using this link (https://bit.ly/3Ml49g8)

  
  

• Task-2: Start working on your assignment Part-1