Course:ELEC300E/CaseStudies/EWaste

Embodied Costs of Computing and Repair
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Content / Topics
	Environmental Impacts
	Repair
	Right to Repair
	Social Impacts of Computing
Relevant Analysis Strategies or Tools
	Exploring Personal Biases & Positionality
	Decision Impact Assessment
	Iceberg Model
	Systems Mapping

Context: The Embodied Costs of Computing

When you think of the environmental costs associated with computing and electronics, what comes to mind?

Maybe you think of the water and energy used by AI datacenters, or the electricity consumption of your laptop and phone. These are examples of operational costs: the environmental impacts incurred during the operation of a device. Typically less than half of the carbon footprint (and more broadly, the environmental impact) of consumer and datacenter electronics is operational. The rest is embodied: environmental and social impacts associated with manufacturing, transporting and disposing of products.

When it comes to evaluating the environmental efficiency or sustainability of electronics, the environmental impacts associated with manufacturing and waste are often just as important as (or more important than) operational energy consumption and efficiency:

The Global eWaste Crisis

The world generates a lot of ewaste:

[1]eWaste is the fastest growing category of solid waste. 62 million tonnes of ewaste was produced in 2022 - and we are on track to reach 82 million tonnes per year by 2030.
The amount of eWaste produced each year is rising 5x faster than the amount of eWaste recycled. Less than a quarter of eWaste is formally recycled.
Much of the eWaste produced in North America is shipped to the Global South (often illegally) which bears the brunt of the environmental and social impacts associated with the global eWaste crisis. Some of this waste is recycled or incinerated, but these processes are unregulated and are extremely polluting and dangerous for both workers and the surrounding areas, as shown in this video about computer recycling in Ghana.

Electronics (and consequently ewaste) contains various chemicals, many of which are highly toxic and dangerous for both people and ecosystems. For example:

eWaste burning and informal recycling in East Africa has been shown to have long term impacts on children's health.
Lead poisoning associated with eWaste exposure has been shown to impact children's mental health and growth.
Elevated levels of Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Arsenic and Mercury have been detected in the soil, the water and the vegetables grown near eWaste landfills and incineration sites.

Mining Rare Earth Metals

Modern electronics contain over 60 different minerals, which are mined in countries across the world, particularly in the Global South. The supply chains supporting the manufacturing of electronics have been associated with socially and environmentally damaging practices:

Cobalt mining in the Congo (for rechargeable batteries) has been associated with extremely inhumane working conditions, child labor and modern day slavery.
Iron ore and Gold mining in Brazil contributes to the deforestation of the Amazon, and the associated displacement of Indigenous communities.
Scientists warn that deep sea mining of cobalt, manganese and nickel will destroy ocean ecosystems.

Carbon Emissions During Manufacturing

Manufacturing electronics is a labor and energy intensive process. For example:

86% of the carbon emissions of an iPhone 11 were incurred during hardware manufacturing.
Around 75% of the carbon emissions of a Macbook came from hardware manufacturing.
A significant portion of datacenter emissions are associated with the construction of datacenters and manufacturing datacenter electronics (eg. between 35% and 82% for a Facebook datacenter, depending on how much renewable energy was used during operation).

Repair: Design, Policy and Education

The good news = there is reason for optimism when it comes to solving these issues!

A report by the University of Exeter (and recent winner of a large environmental research prize) outlines several positive tipping points for climate action. What is a positive tipping point? These are situations where relatively small changes could trigger big positive impacts through positive feedback.

Solutions with the greatest potential for ‘tipping’ are those positioned to unlock reinforcing feedbacks – where early adopters inspire others, costs fall with scale, ecosystems recover enough to sustain their own recovery, or new norms and policies spread from one community or country to the next.

One of these positive tipping points is E-waste collection, circular electronics and repairability (page 98-100):

What it is: collecting the fastest-growing waste stream and keeping electronics in use longer through repairability and recovery of their valuable materials.

Researchers argue that a positive tipping point would be reached when repairing products becomes more convenient than replacing them. When it comes to e-waste, circular electronics and repair, they identify factors that contribute to reinforcing positive change, and factors working against it:

Reinforcing feedbacks:

"Right-to-repair regulations": Laws and standards that ban planned obsolescence, and encourage repairability.
"Service-network tipping": Availability of a selection of repair services and shops for consumers
"Critical materials recovery economics": Critical materials becoming more expensive encourages reuse and recycling of e-waste
"Consumer behaviour shift": Consumers value repair, sustainability and durability

Working against:

"Manufacturer resistance": Repair and durability is against the interest of some manufacturers (planned obsolescence)
"Cross-border e-waste flows": Exporting e-waste from rich to poor countries (often illegally)
"Informal recycling health risks": Hazards associated with informal recycling (see context above)
"Repair workforce constraints": There aren't many trained repairers.

Discussion Questions

Here are a few questions to help you begin analyzing the issues discussed in this case study. The purpose of these questions is to prompt reflection and further consideration: there are no right or wrong answers!

Personal response: Take stock of your immediate response to this case study: outrage, discomfort, boredom, confusion, frustration, hope, interest? How might your unique personal experiences and perspectives inform this response? How can you leverage this response in a positive way?
Contradictory viewpoints and outcomes: Who are the stakeholders involved in this issue? How are they impacted by or involved in different aspects of manufacturing, consuming, recycling, repairing and disposing of electronics? Where are stakeholder priorities conflicting?
Social and Historical Context: Which stakeholders are benefiting from this system, and who is bearing the brunt of the negative impacts? Who has the power to make key decisions? How might these questions relate to broader systems, power structures and hierarchies?
Positive action: How do the repair-based interventions impact the system described? Which specific repair-based intervention do you find most interesting or impactful and why?
Interruptions and invitations: Are the repair based solutions social, technical, or both (socio-technical)? What skills or strategies might help an engineer engage in socio-technical projects, or work effectively in interdisciplinary teams?
Physical connections: The video on e-waste in Ghana shows concrete physical impacts on the health of workers and on the environment. Have you physically seen or experienced any such impacts? How do these experiences, or lack of concrete experiences impact your understanding of the scale and urgency of the issue?
Positive practices: What is one concrete action that you could take, or a practice that you could adopt in your personal, academic or professional life to address some of the issues discussed in this case study?