This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
It feels a bit like the author used AI as a buzzword to get people to click on an article about electronics recycling.
e-waste is a big issue affecting everyone and AI has lots of known issues. Mashing both of those things together doesn't fix anything.
This article is a bit of a mess. What the fuck does AI have to do with the amount of glue used in a device?
And why focus on a limited run from a failed product rather than the literal millions of successful wearable products like airpods that are equally hard to recycle?
Also
Meanwhile, the use of the technology is only expected to grow.
Very insightful
Oh and not to question the professor's expertise but you can't blame the consumers for this one. Literally NOBODY asked for one of these pins.
"These products are designed based on the consumers' desires and affordability," said Berrin Tansel, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Florida International University.
Making them easier to recycle would require the cost of the material recovery process to be fronted by the manufacturer, making them more expensive, Tansel told Context.
Well, make the manufacturer responsible for eol recycling costs then.
There's an e-waste recycling fee tacked onto some electronics (TVs mostly I think) in Canada. Maybe it needs to be expanded to other things?
It should be expanded to everything. Why do we allow corporations to build things that can't be recycled, and not have them pay for the waste management of the products they create? Taxing them for hard to recycle packaging and products would spur them to create more sustainable alternatives. Why do we let consumers buy shit but distribute the cost of their waste management across all tax payers? Consumers should be charged extra for buying products which are hard to dispose of.
NOTE: you just charge the companies for the waste management of their products, which will be passed onto consumers.
That won't work in this case since the company is out of business
If only we had a way to collect money from companies as they operate. Damn.
Edit: I know you said in this case, but taxing companies for this makes sense and needs to be said
And why focus on a limited run from a failed product rather than the literal millions of successful wearable products like airpods that are equally hard to recycle?
Because there are a lot of people with an hateboner for everything with 'AI' mentioned with it and it brings clicks.
I mean, this sucks, but Apple's Airpods are far more egregious, far more numerous (something like 550 million+ versus 10,000+ AI pins), and have spawned an army of copycats all whom cannot be repaired and are just ewaste waiting to happen.
It's really that the entire fucking industry just doesn't god damned care and I can't even find places that reliably take electronic waste like desktops and laptops, let alone this fucking horseshit. USA produces massive amounts of ewaste and basically is like "fuck it" on creating a recycling industry around it.
This problems goes so far beyond these dinky AI pins.
Futurama was making jokes about the horrors of ewaste in its first return run in 2013, it's 2025 and it's only gotten worse.
Grammar nitpick: "Whom" should only be used for people, possibly animals, and maybe other things in an anthropomorphic context like companies, robots*, etc. Extreme pedants would forbid its use for anything other than actual people.
In this instance, "all of which" would be a better substitute for "all whom" in this instance. In fact, that ought to have been "all of whom" whether "whom" was correct or not.
If you'd said "who" instead of "whom" it might not have awakened my inner pedant, but if you're going to use "whom", someone is bound to tell you the proper usage if you make a mistake.
* recyclable or otherwise
Yes, whom was incorrect regardless. Who goes with he, whom goes with him. Who cannot be repaired? He cannot be repaired.
I think the company behind Fairphone makes wireless earbuds as well with replaceable batteries. They are priced in the mid range segment but sadly not available worldwide.
It's irrelevant, people are going to replace them every other year regardless to get the latest and greatest
Apple recycles AirPods. There’s no trade in value, but you can bring them to any Apple Store, or fill out the form for a mail in label.
What happens to them then?
Yup. And the way AirPods’ battery life is, not only are they irreparable, they’re also kaput after only like 2 years.
At least they can be used for 2 years. What about single use vapes? Those things have a lithium battery but people throw them everywhere, instead of recycling them.
While airpods are dogwater in terms of recycling, I have a 2nd hand pair or them and 2 years later they still work like in the beggining.
When I was a kid, I remember my parents frequently taking electronics for repair. Our old VHS and Television had been repaired 7 times over and lasted years.
It really does grip me that every tech device made these days which relies on a battery is near impossible to self service. For years I built PC’s for people so not unfamiliar with components but I can’t change a battery on Samsung / iPhone or change the battery in my £300 Sony Bluetooth ear buds.
The problem is everywhere not just tech as such. Recently my kettle element gave up the ghost. No problem I thought, I can pick up an element for a few quid and change it.
Kitchen Aid however have decided to internally solder their elements so once that’s gone, throw it. £250 kettle with literally not a blemish on it, in the bin because a component that costs all of about 50p to manufacture is no longer replaceable.
I find it so egregious and wasteful…… I do look as far as possible at repairability before buying anything these days but alas, it’s a bloody uphill struggle and as other have said, with so much crap also being manufactured we’re in a pretty sad state which is only going to get worse :(
Not just that, but appliances (and cars!) came with wiring diagrams
Pretty sure they still do, as long as you aren't getting the cheap "everything controlled by one board" models (though the diagram might actually be in the service manual, not in the box).
Although there is still repairability. I repaired my TV by replacing the speakers. Some years ago I repaired my furnace by replacing the control board.
Something like a kettle makes more sense for being sealed, though, because it's water and electricity.
That can't be too much of an issue. How many people bought that shit? Five?
The question isn’t how many people bought them, it’s how many did they make.
If they were realistic, about 10. But I guess they were not, and to make 10 wouldn't have been very economic.
Came here to say this, the total number produced could probably easily fit in a U-Haul moving box.
