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Sustainability analysis by Edward Sibal
Chosen Experiment #7: Bipolar Junction Transistor

Energy

The practice of sustainability to recycle and reuse old silicon material saves a lot of energy in manufacturing new silicon material. On October 30th 2007, the IBM Corporation developed this practice to recycle old silicon parts and use them to manufacture solar panels. [1] This process of creating the solar panels saves 90% of time, energy, and money during calibration and testing.

According to the 2nd law of Ecology, everything must go somewhere. This applies to this sustainable practice because the old silicon material has to end up somewhere in this world. Rather than burning or disposing the silicon, it is being reused for solar panels that will also help society produce energy in a sustainable matter.

Environment

Recycling and disposing technology such as computers, televisions, and printers is still a main concern in today’s society. According to Jeff Johnson, he states that “The plastic cases and other parts that remain from the electronics are often disposed by burning them, which emits dioxins and other pollutants.” [2] Dioxins are highly toxic, which can affect many organisms especially humans since dioxins can stay in the human body for seven to eleven years. Therefore, burning technology poses a threat to the environment by polluting the atmosphere, which can affect humans worldwide.

The 3rd law of Ecology states nature knows best and bats last. People understand and overcome the consequences of burning electrical devices. Furthermore, the American government took action by committing itself to purchase $60 million dollars in information technology hardware that conforms to the EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assesment Tool) standard. This forced companies to create their computer and monitors to a standard of 51 green design and performance. Hence, this encouraged companies to “use less hazardous materials, product take-back programs, monitoring of recycling, and other environmental aware productions methods and materials.” [2]

Economics

According to the 1st law of Ecology, everything connects to everything else. People are concerned about energy consumption and how energy conservation can improve the economy. According to the report, Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Economy, depicts that the U.S. economy has steadily improved its ability to produce more with less energy, but these improvements emerged unevenly and incompletely within the economy. [3] Modern technology such as solar panels, wind power, and water current create sustainable energy, but the problem is that some consumers use a lot of that energy and some consumers conserve that energy. Moreover, the use of energy at different times fluctuates the economy. As a result, the government has taken action on both national and regional levels to promote energy efficiency. They want all consumers to regulate their use of energy and to become ‘energy efficient’ in order to stabilize the improvement of the economy.

Political and Social Equity

Political equity occurs between the United States and Europe when they both face sustainability issues. According to Jeff Johnson, “U.S. companies are being influenced by the European Union’s Waste Electrical & Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which requires manufacturers to take back used products and bans disposal of e-waste in landfills, as well as the EU Restriction of Hazardous Substance Directive, which bands the import of electronics with toxics such as lead and cadmium.” [2] The United States is using Europe’s ideas to reduce the problem of disposing electrical devices. However, other countries are experiencing the same sustainability issues and it is important that they follow the same programs to reduce e-waste efficiently.

In addition, the disposal of electronics is affecting people socially. According to the article, “A Tsunami of Electronic Waste,” by Jeff Johnson states that “as much as 80% of ‘recycled’ material is in fact not really recycled but is dumped in the poorest parts of the world.” [2] Since people are avoiding to burn devices from polluting the atmosphere, they are creating landfills that can affect citizens that live by or at the landfill site.

Lastly, both of these political and social equity situations relate to the 4th law of Ecology: there is no such thing as a free lunch. There is no such thing as free energy, since people have to pay for the consequences of pollution, the practice of energy conservation, and limited resources to create energy.

[1] Ho, David, “IBM Process Recycles Silicon.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. [Accessed November 18, 2009].

Available: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9044799