[sdiy] Future SYNTH-DIY

[Paul Higgins]

>> And isn't the other big issue that a lot of the basically disposable
>> electronics, or the PC boards anyway, are arriving in places like 
>> China and
>> India to be melted down and then the industrial waste is just dumped 
>> into
>> landfills?  They probably are using both industrial-strength acids as 
>> well as
>> heat guns, etc. which generates lots of heavy-metal waste.  I'm sure 
>> that I
>> read something recently about this in the news.
>
> But is that cured by RoHS and the likes? No. Ok, now certain stuff 
> isn't
> in there anymore, but the way they do their recycling business down
> there is quite, erm, "interesting" to say the least.

Well, I think the _intent_ of the environmental regulations is to keep 
that stuff out of the waste stream so that they're not poisoned by it, 
not to mention it getting into the food and agriculture products we 
might buy from them (e.g. check where your shellfish comes from next 
time you go to the market--here it seems to always come from some place 
like Thailand).

Of course, it may be a long time before any of this makes a difference, 
as there is certainly a lot of consumer electronics already piled up in 
these countries ready to be melted down.

> They showed pictures of that on a symposium I recently attended...
> Scary.

I believe it.

-PRH