Movie Review for "The Story of Electonics"
by Hyunsuk Shawn Yoo, Morgan Abbett students at Stanford University Have you ever thought about what happens to your used electronic products after you dispose them? Well, most computers, televisions, media players and other electronics, after being dumped after an average of mere 18 months of use, either are exported to the third world or …
Survey Wrap Up
We received some great coverage on our first Solar Scorecard. Several companies have contacted us to ask how they can be part of the next scorecard, many have already submitted a form so they can be included next year, and we know that customers are asking their installers if they use panels from those who …
How Quickly We Discard Electronics
by Shui Hu – SVTC intern I am a computer science major, and to be honest, I had no idea what I would write about when I initially turned on my laptop to blog on this site. Sure, I had heard of electronic waste and some stories about its ill effects on people, especially in Third World …
Solar Panels: Lip Service to Sustainability?
The blog below was written by student intern Eric Miller. Those of us who peruse SVTC’s blogs regularly know well the litany of hazardous compounds used or created as side products in the fabrication of solar panels – these include aerosolized silicon dust, silane gas, sulfur hexafluoride, sulfur dioxide, and trichloroethane, to name a few. But …
Check out SVTC’s Solar Scorecard
When we returned from our tour of solar facilities in Germany, we realized that each solar company seems to have strengths and weakness in different areas and in order for us to help the industry move to be more just and sustainable – it might be a good idea to compare them. This way companies …
What Do I Really Know?: My Failed Knowledge About Electronic Recycling
Every quarter we are fortunate enough to have students from Stanford University intern here at SVTC. In the upcoming weeks, the students will be blogging about their experiences at SVTC and their thoughts about e-waste and sustainable technology. What Do I Really Know?: My Failed Knowledge About Electronics Recycling It was a simple question. Frustratingly …
Video Contest 2009
When Sheila, our executive director, told me that we wanted to have a video contest on e-waste I was so excited and couldn’t wait to start putting everything together. But then it occurred to me that I didn’t know where to start. The videos had to be short and about e-waste – that I knew. …
Polluter Pays
Some people say we can’t move toward a green economy during an economic crisis, but after more than 40 years of leveling fines on end-of-the-pipe pollution, the evidence is all around us. The current environmental protection system doesn’t work and polluters have contributed to this economic crisis.
Green Jobs Platform
We hope that by getting solar companies to adopt and incorporate the Green Jobs Platform for Solar into their business model early, the solar industry can become a beacon of sustainability by protecting its workers and the planet, rather than a throw-back to the dark manufacturing practices that have dominated the high-tech sector. We’ve already seen unfortunate spills in China.
Clichés to Save the Day!
…a picture is worth a thousand words. That being said, SVTC has launched our first ever video contest to start today, Earth Day, to draw attention to the devastating impacts that e-waste has on the environment and communities. We are eager to have creative individuals who care about this issue help create awareness.