Latest Growth Strategy: Recycling
There is something about this article that I find very interesting. Roger Kay talks about how the computer industry players have launched recycling programs to improve their margins. Henry Hicks calls it one of Lenovo’s growth strategies. Yet there is only a brief mention of the environmental benefit.
The end-of-life problem in the computer industry is not new. But until relatively recently many computers were simply tossed into landfills. This means we as a society have literally been throwing away gold. And silver and platinum and copper and plastic and glass and all sorts of other valuable materials. Why was all of that EVER thrown away?
We are waking up to the concept that McDonough and Braungart have been writing and talking about for years, that we really need to rethink the idea of waste. In their words,”waste equals food” in nature, and waste should also equal “food” in industry. As in this example, the computer industry is planning to make money by sorting through this “waste,” and turning some if it back into “food.” This also means keeping harmful materials out of landfills, ensuring customer data security, refurbishing some systems and reclaiming materials from others.
So in what other ways are we as a society throwing away gold? Can we envision a day when we approach zero waste, when nearly all products at the end of their lives can be used as industrial “food?”
June 25th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Unfortunately, the growth strategy of many consumer-facing companies (Lenovo included) has, for a long time, been planned obsolescence. Wouldn’t it be better (best?) if firms designed products to last twice as long? This goes for computers, cell phones, toys, frankly just about anything you buy. It’s a proven business strategy though – buy Widget X, then have to replace it 2-3-4-5 years down the line. Yes, waste is important, but longer lasting products are (a) more environmentally friendly and (b) more ethical from a consumer’s perspective. I hate buying that cell phone, knowing that I’ll have to replace it in 2-3 years when it wears out.
More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
June 25th, 2008 at 11:13 am
bill,
the problem is in consumer education. consumers as a whole aren’t aware that electronic devices can and should be recycled. they aren’t aware that electronics contain copper, gold, platinum, palladium, aluminum, steel, plastic, rubber, glass, etc. all they know is that their device is a magical box that does work for them. once that working lifespan has expired due to failure or obsolescence, it gets thrown away. consumers need to be thoroughly educated about the materials contained inside their devices.
i can imagine a zero waste society but the materialization if this image will require three fundamental processes to work:
1) products need to be made from 100% recyclable material—not just recycled material since some materials have finite recyclability (such as many plastics)
2) electronics-specific recycling channels need to be made easily available to consumers
3) consumers need to be educated on recycling and given incentive to make the effort to recycle
on an aside, recycling programs in many cities are lackluster at best. in my parents’ hometown, only plastics marked 1, 2, and 3 are accepted, leaving 4 through 7 to be thrown out as usual—and there are a lot of consumer plastic items falling under the latter numbers.
a lot needs to change before we see a zero-waste society but i can see it happening eventually.
rob,
the concept of planned obsolescence is slightly idealistic as obsolescence isn’t always planned or avoidable. many products are made to last 5+ years, yet consumers have been programmed (or have programmed themselves) to want the latest and greatest products.
one example is the thinkpad 600 series. they were built like tanks and many are still functional today. it is still possible to do work on one, although it might take anywhere from 10 to 1000x longer to do said work compared to a modern computer. however, consumers don’t want slow computers anymore. if speeds didn’t increase then people would complain. to add to the equation, many modern computers have become so inexpensive that it is easy for consumers to justify upgrading to new equipment. so, even if manufacturers designed their products to last forever, obsolescence would ultimately be determined by the consumer.
obsolescence is unavoidable. the solution is in recyclable materials, consumer education, and proactive recycling programs. this formula would make the concept of consumer product obsolescence obsolete.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Rob, you are clearly not a parent yet if you think that toys become obsolete because the manufacturer plans it that way. Toys become obsolete because kids grow up, or get bored.
Last month I recycled my 7-year old ThinkPad T20. Over the years I upgraded the memory, added a bigger hard drive, bought a wireless card, etc. It was still working fine, I just didn’t need it anymore; I bought it to run a small business that no longer exists. With the sturdiness of ThinkPad and all of those upgrades readily available, I don’t understand how we are building in obsolescence. If customers’ needs change (or perceived needs, as erik points out) they buy a new computer. The old one is like a toy they have outgrown.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I think recycling especially in the electronics industry is very important from Corporate Social Responsibility CSR Persective, as it eliminates the build up of heavy metals and other toxic materials (i.e. dioxin) in the environment, especially in developing countries where the ‘real’ recycling of materials occur (i.e. copper, gold, plastics and other valulable materials occur). Many of the electronics waste in USA is shipped in containers to China’s Guan Zhou’s rural areas, where the material recycling occurs, many workers and the local environments are ladden with high level of arsenics, lead, chromium and other deadly heavy metals in their system. The recycling methods used by these people are usually very crude, such as burning of plastic sheath around wires to retrieve the copper (thus generating dioxins), using hot flame to burn off the PCB materials to retrieve the gold and copper in the motherboards of computer (dioxins and possible mercury vapours).
While some people say the developing countries should take heed of safe recycling practices, through the use of non toxic solvents or undertake the recycling process in a containment room, then these people are forgotting that these self employed workers are barely making a living even using their crude practices.
Sometimes, companies get carried away with product revamps, where perfectly good accessories are constantly made incompatible with the next product releases. Just look at how many phone chargers variety there are within any mobile phone companies, and many of them are not even compatible with the different models within the same brand. Everytime you get a new phone, it often necessiates that all the accessories that came with it are also obselete and have to be thrown out, this is called “unnecessary wastage”. So many mobile phone companies as part of their CSR are offering same chargers and the option of USB chargering, the latter option should be the way to go into the future, where you can charge your phone with anything that supports a usb port.
While, Apple is somewhat greedy in not including ac adapter with the current Ipod products like they use to do (well they offered a firewire ac adapter in the old days), they however are giving consideration in part to higher revenue (i.e. accessory sales), but also to the environment. Apple knows that the Ipod buyers most likely have more than one Ipod, therefore it would generate a lot of wastage if you include an AC adapter in every product release, since you really only need one and there is always the option of charging through usb ports (every computer has more than one, even hifi system have one now).
So Lenovo is in the right path of CSR, by offering items such as ultrabays, similar batteries across the product range and same power adapaters across all Lenovo laptops (well at least i think they do). More computer companies should follow the Lenovo footsteps of CSR. Rather than some companies that purpots their companies support growing slow growth forests half a world away, while at the same time still polluting their local environment through the over zealous use of non-renewable resources as part of their ever increasing production output.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Bill and Erik -
Thanks for your thoughts on planned obsolescence. You’re right Bill – I’m not a parent yet – and what you’re saying makes sense. I’m thinking more about cell phones and iPods than I am about PCs, as well. iPods, for example, have a finite battery life and Apple basically says “after a while, you’re going to have to replace this thing. deal with it.” on their forums and web sites. That’s what frustrates me (even though I have an iPod from 2001 that still basically works…except if you want to unplug it, that is.)
Thanks again for your comments…
June 27th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Rob, Ipods use Sony and Sanyo batteries, while the earlier ones are good, mine 15 gig 3 rd generation ipod still can hold 6.5 hours charge after 7 years, not bad. However, their latter ipods are afflicted with inferior battery life, while Sony and Sanyo is largely to blame for this, but also the low wholesale of price of batteries (ipod nano battery only fetch around 50 cents for Sony or Sanyo) is also causing cost cutting in the quality front. As they say you get what you pay for.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:45 am
iPod is a great example of how people want the shiny new thing. Apple didn’t create this phenomenon, though clearly they take advantage of it. As they add functionality (color, photos, video, phone) or make design changes (smaller, colors, touch screen) people feel they need to upgrade. This makes the run-of-the-mill music player you bought in 2001 SEEM obsolete, even if it does exactly what it’s always done; play music.
June 27th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
However, the rapid turn over of Ipod makes it a very environmental harmful trend, as these things are pretty much useless after the battery is out and out of date.