(re) blog: dialogue with Redemtech

E-Stewards Subsumes R2 – Why?

Effective March 1, 2012, certification to become an e-Stewards recycler will automatically qualify a recycler as R2 as well. Since the roll-out of the e-Stewards certification in 2010, detailed side-by-side comparisons have obfuscated the fundamental differences in the e-waste recycling standards. Hopefully this step will help clarify the situation. Now, when recyclers become e-Stewards recyclers, they can put a check next to R2 certified and focus on what they do that plain ole R2 recyclers do not. Here are the major differentiators:

The Great Addiction to Electronics – (Ugly Reality #3)

Perhaps this ugly reality should have come first, or maybe it should come later, but indeed, it is the pivotal point of no escape. The reason these ugly realties about electronics are important to understand is that we, as a planet, and most especially, we “developed” nations, have acquired a potentially fatal addiction and there’s no methadone. We have embedded electronics into almost every aspect of our living, and, with the exception of some religious communities eschewing electricity and wilderness expeditions intent on escaping society, we can’t function without them. There are electronics in the systems that bring us electricity, gas and water. In our cars, trains, buses, traffic lights, phones, computers, networks, and tablets. In our heart monitors, pace makers, scanners and imaging systems. In the manufacture of our food, pharmaceuticals and fashion. In our logistics and transportation systems. In our schools, hospitals, banks and restaurants. And the ubiquitous nature of our electronic adoption leaves us highly dependent and highly vulnerable. If our access to all the elements necessary to guarantee our uninterrupted supply were curtailed, life, as we have come to know it, would cease. This is no exaggeration and this wasn’t true 30 years ago. But in these decades of digitization, we’ve become regular users with no viable withdrawal strategy. More importantly, we have no desire to withdraw and have no intention of doing so.

Who is Making Your Electronics? – Where and How – UGLY REALITY #2

Lots of attention is going to the Apple / Foxconn articles exposing the horror of the conditions of the workers creating our sacred gadgets. Today’s news seems to carry more balanced and constructive commentary – taking a longer temporal view, for starters.

Fighting Crime as Part of the E-Stewards Promotions Commitee

Since I first discovered Redemtech in my research for Green IT For Dummies in the fall of 2008, my life has taken a different course. Researching e-waste and my conversations with Redemtech President Bob Houghton gave me something truly tangible and relevant I could do something about. In probing into the origins of IT, I learned that the technology that enables worlds where “knowledge workers” never get their hands dirty, not only has a long and sullied history, but also is rife with contemporary crime. “Crime?,” you ask? Crime. Crime in which, if you don’t pay careful attention, you’ll find yourself participating.

Feng Shui, Sustainability and the After Christmas Blues

The presents are open,
The gifts are unwrapped,
Oh goodness gracious,
Whadda we do with this, uh, stuff?

FCC Connect to Compete Promises Progress without Pangs

I’m in a somewhat unique position. From the time I first started collaborating on The Internet For Dummies (1993) until now, I’ve watched as the world has adopted, adapted and transformed the very essence of human process and communication – so much so that now governments, businesses, schools, transportation and society at large are completely dependent on the Internet and its associated technologies. Twenty-five years ago when I would ask people in the grocery store if they were using the Internet, most asked, “The what?” Those were the days of landlines, telephone books, travel agents and encyclopedias.

America Recycles – Do You? – Day

I’m old enough to remember taking my glass bottles to the recycling center and sorting them by color – a long way from the single-stream recycling my town enjoys curbside.

Does Your Blade Server have an Afterlife or is it E-waste?

We’ve got some hot debate going internally and with our analyst friends in high places: Do organizations apply their IT asset management, disposition and security policies to assets leaving the data center? The analysts, for the most part, are saying, “No, when it comes to the data center, people do whatever they want to do.” Sometimes it’s a “send it back to the leasing provider,” but it’s often whatever the folks in the data center feel like at the time – their focus is on keeping things up, and when old stuff dies, they’re more concerned about getting it out of the way than in keeping track of it.

Talking E-Waste at A Better City

One of the true joys of engaging in sustainability is the generous nature of like-minded individuals who take the initiative to help one another (see the #sustainability discussion on Twitter). Thank you to Susan Labandibar (@Labandibar), President and CEO of Tech Networks of Boston, for introducing me to David Straus (@ABCTMA) – Director of Transportation Demand Management & Sustainability for A Better City (@ABetterCity) – a nonprofit membership organization providing business leadership focused on “sustaining and improving the Boston area's economy and quality of life.” Imagine my delight when A Better City called asking me to talk about e-waste.

Ethical, Responsible Collection of E-waste: Safelite Does Serious Good

Donating to a good cause is typically assumed to be a good thing, but when it comes to disposed electronics, you need to be careful. The unfortunate truth is that a lot of harm can be done if it’s not done correctly, and doing it the right way takes a little more effort and due diligence than does donating shoes or clothes or canned goods. If shoes or clothes or canned goods end up in the wrong place, although they aren’t where you thought they were going, they’re not likely to do any harm. Not so electronic waste. Too often, entities promising to do the right thing don’t, as evidenced by fake recyclers in well-documented instances. To ensure electronics don’t end up in Ghana or China, organizations need to use e-Stewards Certified Recyclers.