It's a sensible move. All the toxic substances that lurk in every component of a PC, or any electronic device for that matter, could very well end up in the water table, in your food and eventually in your body if such equipment is not disposed of/recycled properly.
Think of the billions of pieces of used equipment that must be lying in landfills, seeping poison into the ground. Not nice.
Also, one of the reasons why many products can't be recycled is because of the toxic compounds in the product. For years, computers contained so much lead and cadmium, it cost too much to reclaim them.
Actually, not very many. Most products are being replaced with similar ones that are compliant. Newer manufacturing methods are being superseeded by newer ones that use less, or no toxic compounds.
Circuit boards used to be washed with solvents after manufacture, and again after soldering. Those solvents were banned both in the US, and in Europe, a few years ago. The manufacturers found that by washing them with water based cleaners that were compliant, not only did they conform, but the cleaners were costing much less to buy, and use, but also, the boards came out cleaner!
It's a matter of more understanding of the processes involved. It's amazing just how many toxic compounds have been in products over the years, and just how many have been eliminated.
Just as a point of clarification they still use toxic solvents to wash, I certainly would drink none of them. They just don't use banned substances and have replaced them with other alternatives. These chemicals are still very toxic they are just cheaper by nature of the less stringent recovery required, although in many instances they are easier to recover.
Certainly through the US newer manufacturing methods aren't superseding existing methods but replacing them out of necessity based on public pressure and increasing costs.
Just as a point of clarification they still use toxic solvents to wash, I certainly would drink none of them. They just don't use banned substances and have replaced them with other alternatives. These chemicals are still very toxic they are just cheaper by nature of the less stringent recovery required, although in many instances they are easier to recover.
Certainly through the US newer manufacturing methods aren't superseding existing methods but replacing them out of necessity based on public pressure and increasing costs.
It depends on what you mean by toxic. If you drank dishwashing liquid, it would be toxic as well. For that matter grain, alcohol is toxic. It doesn't stop us from drinking it.
By toxic, in the sense of the board industry, I was talking about serious solvents. That's all gone now. New methods are superceding existing methods. As soon as these substances are banned. Industry is given some time to find substitutes. They were given several years to replace the previous washing solvents. They no longer use solvents. It was a lucky break for them that it turned out to be cheaper and better, but that wasn't why they did it. They were forced to.
The cost is a pain, but the number of hours of config and troubleshooting I've saved in the last couple of years pays off the initial difference in my case several times over. Of course, I'm also glad mine (ordered close to the day of release) is still running ... what with reports of the 13 month death!
I cant think of any reason why configing a moddern SOHO router/switch should take more than 15 minutes...that includes opening ports for special apps, custom configuring IP address space for wired and wireless, changing the subnet, and adding a small DNS blacklist (redirects a couple of problematic sites to 127.0.0.1) Most people just need to change the password and turn on WPA...I just go nuts...the AVERAGE setup would literaly take like 5 minutes if you click on the "help" in the config GUI
Comments
Originally posted by MiMac
It's a sensible move. All the toxic substances that lurk in every component of a PC, or any electronic device for that matter, could very well end up in the water table, in your food and eventually in your body if such equipment is not disposed of/recycled properly.
Think of the billions of pieces of used equipment that must be lying in landfills, seeping poison into the ground. Not nice.
Also, one of the reasons why many products can't be recycled is because of the toxic compounds in the product. For years, computers contained so much lead and cadmium, it cost too much to reclaim them.
Originally posted by melgross
Actually, not very many. Most products are being replaced with similar ones that are compliant. Newer manufacturing methods are being superseeded by newer ones that use less, or no toxic compounds.
Circuit boards used to be washed with solvents after manufacture, and again after soldering. Those solvents were banned both in the US, and in Europe, a few years ago. The manufacturers found that by washing them with water based cleaners that were compliant, not only did they conform, but the cleaners were costing much less to buy, and use, but also, the boards came out cleaner!
It's a matter of more understanding of the processes involved. It's amazing just how many toxic compounds have been in products over the years, and just how many have been eliminated.
Just as a point of clarification they still use toxic solvents to wash, I certainly would drink none of them. They just don't use banned substances and have replaced them with other alternatives. These chemicals are still very toxic they are just cheaper by nature of the less stringent recovery required, although in many instances they are easier to recover.
Certainly through the US newer manufacturing methods aren't superseding existing methods but replacing them out of necessity based on public pressure and increasing costs.
Originally posted by Telomar
Just as a point of clarification they still use toxic solvents to wash, I certainly would drink none of them. They just don't use banned substances and have replaced them with other alternatives. These chemicals are still very toxic they are just cheaper by nature of the less stringent recovery required, although in many instances they are easier to recover.
Certainly through the US newer manufacturing methods aren't superseding existing methods but replacing them out of necessity based on public pressure and increasing costs.
It depends on what you mean by toxic. If you drank dishwashing liquid, it would be toxic as well. For that matter grain, alcohol is toxic. It doesn't stop us from drinking it.
By toxic, in the sense of the board industry, I was talking about serious solvents. That's all gone now. New methods are superceding existing methods. As soon as these substances are banned. Industry is given some time to find substitutes. They were given several years to replace the previous washing solvents. They no longer use solvents. It was a lucky break for them that it turned out to be cheaper and better, but that wasn't why they did it. They were forced to.
Originally posted by fuyutsuki
The cost is a pain, but the number of hours of config and troubleshooting I've saved in the last couple of years pays off the initial difference in my case several times over. Of course, I'm also glad mine (ordered close to the day of release) is still running ... what with reports of the 13 month death!
I cant think of any reason why configing a moddern SOHO router/switch should take more than 15 minutes...that includes opening ports for special apps, custom configuring IP address space for wired and wireless, changing the subnet, and adding a small DNS blacklist (redirects a couple of problematic sites to 127.0.0.1) Most people just need to change the password and turn on WPA...I just go nuts...the AVERAGE setup would literaly take like 5 minutes if you click on the "help" in the config GUI