EE 346 experiment four examined common circuits with diodes. Almost every electronic device today contains a diode in some form or another. What are the environmental, energy, equity, and economic factors?
Environment
The materials used to construct the diodes and other components in experiment four contain hazardous waste that should not be sent to a land-fill. There are initiatives to recycle electronic waste, such as the e-waste collection drive held in Washington, D.C. While these collections are certainly better than dumping the e-waste, only a small portion of the electronics is recycled. The rest is either incinerated or shipped overseas for dumping. [1] What will students do with their EE 346 lab kits once the class is complete? Most will keep the bags of components for a time, but some are bound to eventually end up in a land-fill.
Energy
Every electronic device around us uses electricity. It took a certain amount of energy to manufacture, ship, and store. Most people don’t think about the amount of power it takes to keep the hundreds of lights on in an office building, or how much energy it takes to power every employee’s computer for a day. Students don’t think about the power consumed by the equipment on the bench, the computer, or the lights in the room during the course of a lab. By making the devices we use everyday without thought more energy efficient, we can save money and slow the damage to the environment.
Equity
As mentioned earlier, a significant portion of “recycled” e-waste is shipped overseas to be dumped in poorer nations. While this shifts the problem out of our sight and out of our minds, it unfairly offsets the issue to someone else. Current disposal methods impact everyone around the globe, now and in the future. The diode thrown away after EE 346 lab could come back to haunt your children. In Congo, the mineral coltan is mined for the tantalum it contains. Tantalum is used to make pin-head capacitors which are commonly used in cell phones. [2] The Congolese people mine the coltan but due to political instability, civil war and foreign theft, they are not wealthy. [3] People are unfairly exploited for the resources used to make the devices we take for granted.
Economy
Money seems to be the only term business understands. By adopting the cradle-to-cradle design method, businesses could save millions of dollars per year. [4] Additional savings could be made by using natural and LED lighting in commercial buildings. Unfortunately, the initial cost to make these changes to current design methods and building structures is simply too high for many companies. Many electronic devices sold today become outdated in a relatively short period, typically only a few years. If devices were designed to last longer, fewer would be thrown away but a significant portion of the company’s profits would be lost. Any profit loss is bound to be heavily resisted.
References
[1] Jeff Johnson, "A Tsunami of Electronic Waste," Chemical & Engineering News 86 (21) 2008, 32-33, http://pubs.acs.org/cen/government/86/8621gov1.html (accessed November 21, 2009).
[2] Helen Vesperini, “Congo’s Coltan Rush,” BBC News, August 1, 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1468772.stm (accessed November 21, 2009).
[3] Mark Michalovic, "Tantalum, Congo, and Your Cell Phone," ChemMatters, October 2007, 16-18.
[4] Waste=Food, Directed by Rob van Hattum, VPRO, 2006, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3058533428492266222 (accessed November 14, 2009).





