Bench Talk

Archaeologists will tell you that if you really want to understand a culture, go look in their landfills.  All of their secrets and priorities are evidenced by what is found and what is not found in the city dump.  The FBI is known to mine the trash of criminal suspects to build their cases.  The question on my mind is - what is in your e-waste stream?

I'm lucky to live where my town provides a free on-demand e-waste disposal service.  Residents here collect their e-waste (along with hazardous household waste) and can arrange for a custom pick-up from their front porches.  I collect it all year and then arrange for a pick-up around spring-cleaning time.

I've sorted my collection into three piles:

STUFF THAT BECAME OBSOLETE:

• 2 x Wall Wart Power Supplies

• 1 x Celeron^® D Socket 775 CPU

• 1 x TV PCI Card

• 2 x 512MB Notebook Memory Cards (not shown)

The wall warts still work, but the stuff they powered doesn't.  One has a proprietary connector and the other is an oddball 6.9 volts.

The CPU was old, even in dog years, when the PC was new.  It was the cheapest / slowest CPU you could put in the socket.  Still - I used it for several years.

TV Card for a PC - really?  What was I thinking?

I thought about selling the memory online; but they have others offered for sale for less than $3.50, shipping included.

STUFF THAT JUST PLAIN WORE OUT:

• 5 x Smoke Detectors

• 1 x Lead Acid Battery

• 2 x NiCd Batteries

• 2 x Cell Phone Li-Ion Batteries

Smoke detectors have a useful life of 10 years.  I think it has to do with the radioactive source running down. Rechargeable batteries wear out.

STUFF THAT BROKE:

• 2 x PC Motherboards

• 1 x DVD R/W Drive

• 3 x Wall Wart Power Supplies (one not shown...)

• 1 x Wireless Mouse

The PC motherboards are really, really dead.  I suspect electrolytic capacitors failed in the DC/DC converters around the CPU socket.  But then, I always suspect electrolytic capacitors.

The DVD drive just decided to not read disks anymore.

The wall warts either lost voltage regulation or became too noisy to be useful.

The wireless mouse had its useful range collapse from about 10 feet to about 18 inches.

LESSON LEARNED:

This last category - Stuff That Broke is a true shame.  If my waste stream is representative, about 30% of the electronics in landfills (assuming most people have little choice but to just throw e-waste in the regular trash) is there because some component failed.  I'd like to think that most of my failures were due to something other than an electrical surge or ESD where good circuit protection design would have extended the life, but I can't be sure.  One thing is certain - design engineers truly have an impact on our environment.

I'd like to hear your story - what is in your e-waste stream?

Kelly Casey is VP of Engineering for FM Technical Consulting, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nebraska, as well as a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, Mr. Casey has held various roles at Bourns, Littelfuse, and Teccor Electronics.  

 

Kelly Casey is VP of Engineering for FM Technical Consulting, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nebraska, as well as a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, Mr. Casey has held various roles at Bourns, Littelfuse, and Teccor Electronics. 

Kelly Casey is VP of Engineering for FM Technical Consulting, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nebraska, as well as a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, Mr. Casey has held various roles at Bourns, Littelfuse, and Teccor Electronics.