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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