• Global E-Waste Monitor 2014 report

    Ecotech Services administration

    The United Nations University (UNU) have released the Global E-Waste Monitor 2014 report. It is estimated that less than one sixth of the e-waste generated globally was diverted from landfills and either recycled or reused.

    New Zealand generates 19kg per capita giving a national total of 86,000 tonnes.  Australia, with which we have close economic ties and similarities in culture, generates 20kg per capita, however they have legislation in place for mandatory e-waste recycling whereas New Zealand does not.

    Given that e-waste contains toxic material and recoverable resources there is a lot of work required to make electrical and electronics technology sustainable.

    Discarded Kitchen, Laundry, Bathroom Equipment Comprises Over Half of World E-waste – United Nations University

    E-waste last year contained US$52 billion in resources, large volumes of toxic material; most is not collected for recovery or treatment New United Nations University report details e-waste generation by region.

    The full, high resolution report can be downloaded from the UNU.

  • Check out this circuit

    Alan Liefting

    I am having trouble doing fault finding on this circuit.
    Thanks to fotophil for alerting me to this rather interesting problem.

    A rather interesting circuit
    My knowledge of circuit theory is failing me. I don’t recognise some of those circuit symbols. And do Kirchhoff’s Laws, and Norton’s and Thévenin’s Theorems work on this circuit?
    Image credit: http://xkcd.com/730/
    , ,

  • Appliances and energy consumption

    Alan Liefting

    Here is one of Alex Hallett’s Arctic Circle cartoons about appliances and energy consumption:

    Three pane strip cartoonIt probably is the case that the eco setting does not do a lot when you look at the Big Picture.  Also, how often does it actually get used?

    New power stations and fossil fuel emissions are the two big environmental effects of electricity generation.    Here in New Zealand something like 70% of electricity is from renewable energy sources which means carbon emissions per kilowatt/hour is not as bad as other countries.  In recent years plans for at least three major hydroelectric power stations were scrapped for an assortment of reasons, and this may well be the trend in the future.

    Another consideration is the environmental effect of discarding older models without an eco option versus buying a brand new one with it.

    , ,

  • Electrical parts pricing

    Alan Liefting

    I offered to fix an extension cord for a mate of mine. It was missing the socket.  I recall paying a really high price for cord socket from Redpaths electrical wholesalers some time ago. About $18 or so by memory. I thought I might check out the price that Bunnings Warehouse (a recently arrived Aussie hardware store) sell them for. Turned out it was only about six dollars for a socket!

    Why such a huge difference?  Economies of scale?  Price gouging?

    Unfortunately, the high price of spare parts such as connectors, lamps, elements, LCDs, motors, coils, armatures, mechanical assemblies, circuit boards, and all sorts of other stuff  is a real problem for the service industry.  It makes a lot of repairs uneconomic.

     

  • White van speaker scam

    Alan Liefting

    E-waste is a really big problem at the best of times but it becomes a bigger problem because of some of the absolute rubbish that passes itself off as electronics equipment. This rubbish being sold would have really poor performance with respect to comparable units, the reliability is probably low, the look and feel of it would be cheap and nasty, and the buyer would readily throw it out.

    One of the sources of this cheap electronics over in Australia and in the UK is through what’s known as the white van speaker scam. How it works is that crafty, slimy, unethical “salesmen” do the hard sell out of white vans in places such as supermarket carparks.

    Dave Jones over at the EEVblog (which is where I learnt about the scam) has a video about a really poor quality audio amplifier that would have been sold in one of these scams:

    EEVblog #671 – White Van Speaker Scam Teardown

    Dave exposes the global White Van Speaker Scam and tears down a Marc Vincent Surround Sound Receiver, one of the items sold in Australia through this scam. How crap is it?, watch and find out!

    I have yet to hear of this sort of thing happening here in New Zealand and if it has not happened yet lets hope that it never will.

  • Envirostep evaluation report

    Ecotech Services administration

    Environstep logoEcotech Services has answered the Envirostep questionnaire to determine how good our environmental performance is ranked.  Interestingly, although we are aware of the various environmental issues facing our society (and indeed the planet) and we take our environmental protection measures very seriously, our overall ranking was only a mere 34%. This was broken down into an Environmental Performance of 38.5% and an Environmental Management of 32.3%.

    Environmental Performance (38.5%)
    1. Energy 25.2 %
    2. Water 84.8 %
    3. Waste 12.1 %
    4. Transport 11.7 %
    5. Site 38.5 %

    Environmental Management (32.3%)
    6. Planning 29.4 %
    7. Compliance 40.0 %
    8. Operations 21.0 %
    9. Information 60.0 %

    The automated response to the questionnaire gave the following recommendations:

    • Transport
      • Consider replacing your vehicles with more fuel efficient alternatives
      • Find out the rated fuel economy of your light vehicle(s)
      • Get your drivers to check tyre pressures monthly
    • Site
      • Modify your activities or site to make them more compatible
      • Find out if your business is compatible with neighbouring land uses
      • Find out if you have an inspection regime for your site/facilities
    • Planning
      • Review reported accidents, incidents & complaints
    • Operations
      • Develop emergency response procedures

    They are all valid suggestions but for transport running our older vehicles is not a particularly important issue since their usage is minimised through the use of courier services, telecommunications, and bicycles.  As for accidents, incidents and complaints, they could be divided into human health and safety, and environmental issues.  Note that we have not had any accidents, incidents, or complaints to date.

    In defence of our low ranking we are would like to think that our environmental ethics are good and our environmental conscience is clear because the actual work that we do – namely minimising the e-waste generation and energy consumption – has a high net environmental benefit.

    A spreadsheet of the Envirostep report is filed here.

  • Advertising

    Alan Liefting

    I have a dream…

    One day the recycling industry will be able to afford glossy adverts like the ones put out by Big Box retailers and their ilk. We are doing a good thing for the environment so why should we play second fiddle to the retailers?

    There would be a little irony here.  We get about 33 kilograms of junk mail on average apparently and it all should be recycled of course!

  • Human safety versus environmental protection

    Alan Liefting

    There is a huge amount of electrical safety regulation here in New Zealand and this sharply contrasts with the total lack of environmental regulations for the same equipment.

    Any electrical products used in New Zealand need to pass a set of compliance tests before they are allowed to be sold. Once in use, and depending on where and how they are used, electrical products require electrical safety testing as often as every three months. When they are discarded or scrapped they have to be prevented from being able to be plugged into the mains electricity supply.

    Contrast this with the fact that even though some electrical products contain hazardous substances such as mercury, cadmium, and lead, there are absolutely no regulations governing the disposal of these products.  Also, it seems everything conspires against the repair, refurbishment, and recycling of electrical products.  I have discussed the decline in the repair industry in this submission, I have already blogged about being unable to obtain stock for refurbishment, and I am finding that recycling e-waste correctly is almost impossible to do.

    All of this is part of the intergenerational inequality that our society has created.  We are placing a high value on our own lives but it means that if future generations want to enjoy the state of the environment that we currently have then they will have to clean up the mess that we are creating.

  • Submission on priority products intervention

    Ecotech Services administration

    Ecotech Services has made a submission on the Ministry for the Environment Priority waste streams for product stewardship intervention discussion document.

    Given the level of harm created by e-waste and the potential for economic growth from the repair, refurbishment, and recycling of electrical products Ecotech Services strongly supports having them declared as “priority products” by the Minister for the Environment.

    See our submission here and our product stewardship page for more information.

  • Nanotechnology based battery extenders

    Ecotech Services administration

    Ecotech Services was alerted to a product on the market that claims to extend the life of batteries used in common electronic items.  This particular one is the AkkuFresh Nanotech Battery Life Foil.  The benefits described in the sales pitch for a special deal seems vaguely plausible but highly questionable:

    “AkkuFresh® absorbs all source of energy inclouding (sic) electromagnetic field (EMF) energy and generate negative ions far infrared waves and biorezonance. Negative ions will penetrate into the battery and create higher frequency on witch the crystals resonate and burst. This cleaning process causes the battery to regain its initial capacity, and enhance the flow of negative ions. It also let’s the Lithium ions resonate, through which an increase in voltage is obtained.”

    The poor grammar and the spelling mistake is an indication that it may be a dubious product, but the phrase “generate negative ions far infrared waves ” and the mention of the pseudoscience of “biorezonance” strongly suggests that it is.  A battery pack usually consists of opaque plastic which is of course impervious to infrared and to negative ions (at the operating temperature that batteries use.)

    AkkuFresh claims to have had their product tested by Kent Holdings Ltd. “in co-operation with US and European universities, independent testing laboratories and battery technology centers”.   As well as testing and promoting AkkuFresh Kent Holding also promotes the ionXtra® intelligent water.  This removes any credibility the company may have on the grounds of vested interests and rational thought.

    A similar product called BatMax is on the market with the same dubious marketing.

    There are many ways of improving battery life, such as storage temperature, charging regimes, battery type selection criteria, and technological advances.  Products for improving battery that are promoted using pseudoscience and buzzwords are of no value.

Latest posts

News archives

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012