Making companies deal with their e-waste is called Extended Producer Responsibility or Product Take-back. If all these old gadgets were their problem, it would be cheaper for them to just design them longer lasting, less toxic, and more recyclable in the first place. They could even make them modular so that when one part broke, they could just send us a new piece instead of taking back the whole broken mess. 

 

 

 

Already take-back laws are popping up all over Europe and Asia. In the U.S. many cities and states are passing similar laws. These laws need to be protected and strengthened. It’s time to get these brainiacs on our side. With take-back laws and citizen action to demand greener products, we can start a race to the top, where designers compete to make long-lasting, toxic-free products. 

 

 

 

So let’s have a green Moore’s law. How about the use of toxic chemicals will be cut in half every 18 months? The number of workers poisoned will decline at an ever faster rate? We need to give these designers a challenge they can rise to and do what they do best. Innovate! Already, some of them are realizing they’re too smart to be dump designers and are figuring out how to make computers without PVC or toxic flame retardants. Good Job, guys!

 

 

 

But we can do even more. When we take our e-waste to recyclers, we can make sure they don’t export it to developing countries. And when we do need to buy new gadgets, we can choose greener products. But the truth is we are never going to just shop our way out of this problem, because the choices available to us at the store are limited by the choices of designers and policy makers outside of the store. That’s why we need to join with others to demand stronger laws on toxic chemicals and on banning e-waste exports.

 

 

 

There are billions of people out there who want access to the incredible web of information and entertainment that electronics offer. But it’s the access they want, not all the toxic garbage. So, let’s get our brains working on sending that old design for the dump mentality to the dump where it belongs and instead building an electronics industry and a global society that’s designed to last.