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The Greening of the Laptop |
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Dr. Samuel Says -
Smart Design
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
Here's an interesting infonugget: By 2009, laptop computers sales are expected to surpass desktop system sales, worldwide, for the first time. Bearing in mind that the typical laptop user buys a new system every three years, the question becomes: What happens to all those used laptops?
 Glad you asked. The humbly endeavoring folks at Popular Science
magazine have rounded up some details on how the industry plans to
green up the scene, insofar as laptop computers are concerned. There are
a number of interesting initiatives. Experts have long been monitoring
the toxic waste issues related to dumping electronics into landfills.
(For instance, the lead in solder has been mostly replaced with silver
and copper.) The U.S. has recently issued a new (albeit voluntary)
system that limits certain toxins in computer systems.
Government-purchased equipment must now meet these new standards, and
projections indicate the move will eliminate about 3,000 tons of
hazardous waste by 2011.
Better yet, many manufacturers are now using plant-based polymers, or
bioplastics , to replace the petroleum-based materials traditionally
used. Using corn instead of oil means much less total energy
expenditure in the manufacturing process. Of course, reusing materials
is even better than recycling them, and some companies are focusing on
that end of things. Laptop-maker Asus has a system that lets users
change the processor, graphics card and other parts just by simply
removing a panel, instead of spending hours disassembling the computer. The idea being, upgrade your laptop instead of replacing it.
Some other smart ideers: Solar chargers -- portable plug-in units have
been around a while, but newer options integrate the panels right into
the casing. Making the unit itself more energy-efficient is, of course,
always a priority. Organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs , eat less
power than traditional LCDs or LEDs. And using solid-state flash memory
takes care of the pesky tradition of using mechanically spinning hard
drives.
All in all, much to be enthused about.
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