A Brief History and Update on
Life Cycle Environmental
Implications of Electronics
H. Scott Matthews
Carnegie Mellon University
April 12, 2005
An Interesting Problem
•
•
•
•
Information and communications technology
(ICT) products and the systems that use them
are a “double-edged sword”
On one hand, they lead to environmental
problems and concerns
However using them can allow us to significantly
improve our use of resources, energy, etc.
Finding the balance requires a detailed,
collaborative and interdisciplinary approach
Sales of Computers
(1980-2003)
140
100
80
60
40
Units (millions)
120
20
0
1980
84
88
92
96
00
02
Year
U.S.
Japan
APAC
EMEA
Over 100 million PCs are sold per year now. In 2003, the
one-billionth PC was shipped since 1980. USA dominates
Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA)
•
A concept and methodology to evaluate the environmental effects of
a product or activity holistically, by analyzing the whole life cycle of a
particular product, process, or activity (U.S. EPA, 1993).
– From raw material acquisition through production, use and disposal
– What are example impacts at each stage?
Motivations Over Time
•
•
Concerns related to end-of-life (EOL)
equipment (early 1990s)
“Gloom and doom studies”
– Carnegie Mellon University Estimates of PCs
landfilled (1991, 97)
– SVTC, Basel Action Network E-waste reports
(2003)
– Tantalum mining for cell phones in Africa
EOL / Disposal Concerns
For Electronics
•
•
•
Toxic substances such as lead could leach
into soil and contaminate groundwater.
Technological advances could accelerate the
turnover of TVs and computers.
Rapid advances could lead to storage,
donation, repair, or disposal of working and
non-working equipment.
Europe: RoHS/WEEE
Directives
•
•
•
•
The primary global motivation
RoHS: bans or restricts certain substances of
concern (e.g. Lead)
WEEE: puts in place systems to require
takeback and handling of EOL electrical and
electronic products (not just PCs!)
Passed in last few years at EU level
– But each EU country responsible for local
definition, legislation, enforcement
– Most EU countries have not fully implemented the
required legislation yet
TVs and Computer Monitors
•
Electronics (used to) share critical components
–
–
–
–
–
•
•
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
CRT screen contains lead
Protects the user from radiation
Lead weighs from four to eight pounds
Newer LCD screens have less problems but have
other concerns (e.g. mercury in bulbs?)
Next series of slides gives specific data
collected from one large state (Florida) about
the magnitude of the problem
Also inspires the need for a solution
Residential Length and Use of
Disposal Practices - Computers
•
•
•
•
63% of Florida’s households own a computer.
35% of residents 65+ years old have a
computer in the home compared to 80% of
residents 18 to 34 years.
Fewer than 3% of residents had broken
monitors in their home.
Computer owners will handle broken monitors
the same way broken TVs are handled.
Residential Awareness of
Hazardous Materials
•
•
•
63% of residents are unaware of the
hazards posed by CRTs.
Women were the least likely to be
aware of the potential threat posed by
CRTs to household or family.
Only 15% of residents were aware of
demanufacturers or “recyclers” for
electronics.
Residential Preferences
for Recycling
•
•
•
44% of residents would prefer to recycle TVs
and computer monitors at a donation center.
58% of residents don’t want to pay anything
for recycling electronics.
If a fee is imposed:
– 50% of residents would prefer to have the fee
imposed at the time of discard
– 15% at the time of purchase,
– and 11% itemized on the receipt at time of
purchase.
Educating the Public
About Recycling
•
•
•
•
Residents don’t consider the CRT issue
urgent and 70% don’t want additional
information.
Younger residents (18-34) were the most
interested in recycling information.
Residents rated county/city recycling
programs as preferred education method for
recycling info.
TV and Radio were stated as the best media
for receiving information.
CMU Dell Event Context
•
A few hundred people, 50 tons collected
– About half from a few large groups (school
districts, etc.)
– Thus a few hundred individuals brought
about 25 tons.
•
•
How much of the Pittsburgh-area ewaste did we likely collect?
What else could we do?
The Evolving Electronics
Infrastructure
•
The Evolution
– Demanufacturers/Entrepreneurs
– Corporate Recovery Programs
– Government Regulatory Discussions
– Local County Government Pilot Programs
– Government Bans or Regulations
– Media Coverage
– Producer Responsibility
Manufacturer Actions
•
Hewlett-Packard (HP) and IBM have long been
industry leaders
– Were amongst first companies to develop in-house
electronics recycling facilities
– Were first to offer publicly available takeback and
recycling programs (for a fee)
– Unclear what volume of recycled product and
revenue streams look like
– Unclear whether these programs are profitable
State Actions (2005)
•
After more than 10 years of waiting, it seems that
several states poised to pass legislation about
takeback/recycling
– California is often a leader at state-level environmental
management (e.g. automobile emissions)
– Other states look to California for leadership
– California’s current plan not friendly to manufacturers some headquartered in the state (e.g. HP)
– Will place large burden on manufacturers not
consumers
Some Concerns
•
Computer recycling IS NOT FREE
– There are many costs associated with
logistics, handling, demanufacturing
– Actual cost on order of $10-$20 per unit
– Free events may send wrong signals to
people about costs of recycling
– Similar to how artificially low gas prices in
US lead to purchase of large vehicles and
15,000 miles driven per car per year?
Beyond End-of-Life Issues
•
•
In last 5 years, focus of much research
has moved from EOL to sustainability of
information and communications
technology (ICT) systems
Expectation is that hardware issues will
eventually be solved - but what will
happen as ICT systems become more
pervasive in the world?
What is sustainability?
•
•
Sustainability is a concept related to
managing growth
“Meeting the needs of the present
generation without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their
needs”
Press: Optimists vs.
Pessimists
•
Energy consumption of Internet
– Mills “Dig More Coal” vs. Romm/ Koomey
– Study claimed that 10% of US electricity
use was from the Internet
– Later disproved but still gets much
attention
•
Effects of Hardware Production
– Total environmental flows of small DRAM
chips (2g) were 2 kg (Williams 2002)
Energy Flow Diagram
System Losses
36.3 GJ Electricity Grid 32.7 GJ
10%
Customer
Distribution/
Transmission
We lose, on average, 80% of the
energy we extract when using it for
electronic products
Power
Supply 40%
19.6 GJ
Power Naps
•
•
Campus initiative to set power management on
computers/monitors (10-20,000 computers!)
Electricity use of computer equipment:
– Desktop Computer: 110 W
– CRT Monitor: 80 W
– LCD Monitor: 24 W
•
Unlike PCs, monitors can be turned off quickly,
easily, painlessly, and temporarily
– Turning off monitors saves 72% of desktop energy
•
Could also save cooling energy use in summer
from less need to dissipate heat (not included
here)
Growth of Retail E-commerce
•
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
US DOC began
measuring and
reporting retail ecommerce in March
2000
– 4Q 03 = $17 Billion,
up 25% from 4Q 02
– Only 2% of retail
purchases ($918 B)
–Note the following are not considered retail (and thus also not counted)
–Travel, financial, ticket brokering
Will E-commerce Improve or
Degrade the Environment?
•
Pro – reduce private and commercial travel avoid shopping trips,
– remove transaction inefficiencies,
– reduce logistic and manufacturing
inefficiencies,
– reduce waste of inventory and remainders,
– digital manufacturing service provision
Will E-commerce Improve or
Degrade the Environment?
•
Con – overhead of Internet infrastructure - electricity use
increase, computers, switches, etc.
– shift to high impact travel modes,
– reduce scale economies - smaller shipment sizes,
– stimulate growth,
– encourage dispersion
– Harry Potter
Summary Environmental
Impacts (per-book basis)
Trad. E-Com.
Energy (MJ)
115
105
Conventional Air (kg)
0.2
0.1
Hazardous Waste (kg)
0.2
0.2
7
7
Greenhouse Gas (kg)
Our Prior Research
•Previously
measured wired, wireless,
and total electricity use of CMU
campus network
•Total: ‘network’ uses 5% of campus
electricity (~5 MkWh / yr)
–Wireless ‘equipment’: 5-10x less electricity
than wired
•While
not purely generalizable, an
indicator of the potential energy
efficiency of wireless
Wired vs. Wireless electricity
(W per subscriber)
Thus, electricity use
‘per subscriber’ will
rapidly favor wireless
and trend to 10x
Final Thoughts
•‘Efficiency’
of wireless (versus wired)
communications is irrelevant!
•For foreseeable future, we will have
need for wired networks (if nothing
else, to make long-range mobile
calls!)
•This dependency will limit our ability
to realize energy savings from
wireless
–i.e., until we ‘pull the plug’, we are using
more total energy to have both to use