My apologies for not leaving a post on here for a while. I’ve been quite I’ll and thus, not in the mood. HOWEVER, normal service has been resumed and my thoughts are back on the interwebs, for good or for bad!
I was listening to a talk this week about how we should care more about the environment. Normal I don’t pay too much attention to recycling talks, but this was different. It made me think. We have a perception of recycling as being this environmentally friendly thing to do. Recycling is a good thing, yes, but at the same time, its a massive waste. A toaster for example will get stripped apart, the plastics melted down, causing volatile fumes to be released. This causes damage to the environment. The steel get melted down releasing a lot of smoke in the air. the electronics get sent to places like china for harvesting using a lot of fuel in the shipping process. when desoldered, the fumes cause damage to the operator breathing it in.
Recycling is great, BUT, even that comes at a price.
He is a alternative
When your car brakes down, do you recycle it? NO! because that’s damn expensive. Instead you pull out the manual, or drive to a local garage and get it repaired. When your Bicycle brakes, you repair it. Even punctures nowadays people don’t even bother with. I grew up with parents that taught me to repair things. How to wire a plug, how to fix a puncture, how to repair a toaster. AND GUESS WHAT! its not as hard as you might think. Sure there is a learning curve. The laptop I’m writing this on is over 10 years old and was binned because it didn’t work. After some time with a screwdriver and a bit of common sense, IT LIVES!
So next time the toaster brakes, rather than strip it apart melt it down and send it to china, causing pollution to the planet. Whip out a screwdriver and check the fuse.
Maybe, just maybe, you’ll get lucky and find that it’s simple. You can save yourself buying a new toaster as well.
Hack the planet! Save the planet!
The Enginer’d