J4
Sam Mennega
Abbie Parsons
Carter Griffioen
Josiah Holliday
Tyler Urbain
Since we are not likely to run out of a material, why do we need to be concerned with material
selection?
As we use more and more of a material, it becomes much harder to harvest that resource. This
means the costs will go up and use will go down. Consequently, it is likely we will spend even
more energy, and create more waste as we harvest the diminished resource. This does not
show good stewardship over the finite resources we are given access to. Thus, we should be
conscious of when a material is absolutely necessary for us to use, and be mindful of how the
use of that resource affects our earth and environment.
Material Cycle: The main areas of waste in the total material cycle of a laptop are during the
supply and manufacture process, and the end-of-life/collection stage (Fig 1). By implementing a
rebate program for customers to return old or broken laptops to the manufacturer for re-use,
they may be able to lower the quantity of devices which end up in a landfill. By designing
efficient and energy-conscious supply lines, assembly lines, and fabrication processes, energy
waste can be reduced, resulting in a more green process overall.
Figure 1 - The lifecycle of an electronics product starts with manufacturing and continues
through the end-of-life of the product. The major points that create waste within this process are
manufacturing and collection.
What role does the engineer play in material selection, manufacturing, and disposal? List at
least two ways an engineer can make more sustainable choices in EACH of these areas for
your specific product.
Selection:
1. Planning for material failure, looking ahead at the end life of a material.
2. Looking for recyclable materials and making sure they can be reused in future products.
3. Selecting materials that are appropriate, and won’t cause premature part failure, thus
reducing parts and products which will be discarded.
Manufacturing:
1. Product design reduces the environmental impact
2. When evaluating manufacturing processes, the engineer can evaluate energy
consumption in addition to cost and effectiveness.
3. Design efficient assembly/fabrication processes to reduce energy consumption at
factories and plants.
Disposal:
1. Creating a system where old products and parts can easily be returned and able to be
exchanged.
2. Being mindful about emissions released in material disposal. Choosing the least harmful
disposal method for the environment.
The authors point out that processing our sewage is today considered non-negotiable, unlike
100 years ago. They suggest that processing solid waste should be thought of in the same way.
What other common practices of today need to be changed?
- Corporations that chose to push the blame of waste onto the consumer need to be more
transparent about their own waste management processes.
- The pollution problem is often downplayed by the largest contributors to it. During the
Pepsi psa we watched in class, the video creators stated that the issue is up to
consumers to resolve, claiming that if they just recycle their bottles the pollution problem
will go away. This understates the severity of the issue and contributes to the perception
that this is not a wide-scale problem.
- Consumers and suppliers need to start incorporating the three R’s:
- Reduce our use of material resources as much as possible, perhaps through
eliminating excessive packaging
- Instead of large waste plants, more should be done to allow people to Reuse
materials, through using returnable, such as: turning styrofoam cups into plant
starters and egg cartons into children’s art projects
- Recycling also includes composting of yard clippings, leaves, and other organic
materials and returning them directly to the soil as an enriching medium.
Why do the authors of the article believe recycling had not been adopted on a wide-scale basis?
(At the time of the article?) What has been done since this article to encourage recycling?
-In the nineties, recycling was just starting to catch on. Recycling was a relatively new
practice. Many countries and companies were just starting to support the practice;
Germany passed legislation which put the responsibility for packaging waste on
producers, and McDonalds started a program to reduce packaging waste. Despite these
trends, at this time, recycling was far less common than it is now.
- Since the time of this article, multiple states have passed legislation requiring that
electronics be recycled, rather than thrown-out.
- Many cities, led by San Francisco have banned, or implemented a tax on the use of
plastic bags.
How can these or similar steps be applied to other societal issues? Select one of your ideas
from question 6 and describe steps you and/or society could take to address it.
- One of our ideas from question 6 was the concept that the corporations that chose to
push the blame of waste onto the consumer need to be more transparent about their
own waste management processes. We can connect this to other societal issues such
as homeless people being warped in citizens’ perspectives through city management
putting dividers on benches and spikes on sidewalls. This practice makes the homeless
community look like the root of the problem, rather than the system that caused them to
be homeless. This can also be generally applied to other corporations or groups that
don’t give their consumers or participants the advantage of a sustainable life after
leaving the company/group. An example of this could be veterans that aren’t provided
with necessities to flourish after they leave a military group.
References:
https://www.epa.gov/smm-electronics/basic-information-about-electronics-stewardship
https://www.buschsystems.com/resource-center/page/a-brief-timeline-of-the-history-of-recycling