5.1 Environmental Issues (B02)

the period of time between the purchase of assets (eg digital devices) and their replacement with equivalent assets for businesses: - have to replace equipment when they or their OS are no longer supported - same as personal users (this can be as short as 3-4 years) - cost effectiveness = main concern - replacement usually means an upgrade for personal: - main thing is new features, advertising affects this

raw material extraction: - arsenic, cadmium, chromium are hazardous (circuit boards) - uranium, thorium can contaminate air, soil and groundwater (computer products) - also uses precious metals + excavation: damages local environment use of water: - manufacturing semiconductors is highly water intensive - water shortages in areas where these factories are located - untreated waste water discharge - environmental pollution production: - raw materials shipped to factories - shipped to another location for assembly use of energy: - burning fossil fuels - Co2

shorter r.c. = more disposal of equipment, increase in e waste more devices manufactured

“Waste materials end in landfill (1) Dangerous toxins are released into the ground/water (1) Waste is transported overseas (carbon emissions) (1) Recyclers are exposed to toxins (1)” large amounts of e-waste are shipped overseas to LIDCs where it is dumped in landfill sites / dismantled to extract the materials: they are now refusing and ACs have to make new recycling arrangements

every stage of a computer’s life needs energy (so does mining raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, transportation etc) cloud computing (storage of vast amount of data on remote servers) has lead to building of data centres - consume about 3% worldwide energy - needed to power and cool all the computing equipment

• using a hot/cold aisle configuration to increase cooling system efficiency • using blanking panels to minimise recirculation of hot and sealing the floor to prevent cooling losses • investing in research to develop new less energy-hungry alternative to silicon based data storage maybe graphene?? • ration internet usage (eg by imposing a tax on uploading data OR by changing images uploaded to social media to black and white)

manfaucture: - EU Restriction of Hazards Substances (RoHS) directive brought into UK in 2013 - restricts use of certain materials (cadmium, lead, mercury etc) - governments are imposing tough recycling targets to ensure that more reusable material is recovered and reused to protect reserves of scarce resources disposal: - WEEE (Waste Electrical and ELectronic Equipment) regulations set targets for collection, recycling and recovery of computing technology and other electronic items - APPLY TO BUSINESSES

relating to the natural world and the impact of human activity on its condition

discarded electrical or electronic devices

some tech companies intentionally design products to become obsolete, or no longer useful after a certain period. This drives consumers to regularly upgrade their devices, leading to increased manufacture and more electronic waste.