Reality and sustainability
Lundgren has three rules for a more sustainable society:
#1: Manufacturers need to design end-of-life solutions into their products. Products need to be modular, biodegradable and reusable at the end-of-life.
#2: Focus on re-using products. The closer you can get to repurposing a discarded product in its original form, the better.
#3: Recycling and sustainability must be profitable. In the beginning, innovation can be subsidized. But ongoing subsidy is not sustainable. (If this is true, then we need to rethink oil, solar, industrial wind, nuclear and military industries.)
The future of battery design--and capitalism
Battery design is evolving so quickly that most manufacturers don't think about reuse. "Someone will pay to ship used batteries to dumpsites in Malaysia, India or Africa," Lundgren sighs. (China won't take e-waste anymore.) "Lots of hazardous chemicals will seep into land and water. If business performs as usual--if manufacturers don't think about disposal during design, then everything we buy will go to landfills. Poor people will have to figure out how to live with more of our waste. We can't tolerate this kind of manufacturing. We've got to insist on innovative thinking.
"In the old way of capitalism," Lundgren says, "we mastered manufacturing, marketing and consuming. We focused on profits and ignored the trash. New capitalists," he continues, "recognize that the Earth's resources are finite. I'm done with single-use products. I'm ready for manufacturers to focus on long-term goals--and use only biodegradable materials or that can be repurposed into new things."
Surprising new partners for Right-to-Repair
Lundgren considers his prison-time a catalyst that serves the greater good. Media attention to it helped charge the Right-to-Repair movement, which advocates for building a society that repairs and reuses as much as possible. (Lundgren likes to promote Kyle Wiens' ifixit.com, which provides 80,000+ free manuals for repairing almost anything--and sells tool kits and parts.)
Microsoft, the FCC and--at Eric's urging--even Apple have now committed to supporting the very thing that sent Eric to prison.
Meanwhile, Eric Lundgren advocates for keeping our things in good repair and rewarding good stewards who use less. "Our past can power the future," he practically sings--as if inviting more voices to join in.
REFERENCES
- Click Here
- Click Here
- Click Here
- Katwala, Amit, "The spiraling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction," Wired, August 5, 2018.
Katie Singer writes about the energy, extractions, toxic waste and greenhouse gases involved in manufacturing computers, telecom infrastructure, electric vehicles and other electronic technologies. She believes that if she's not aware that she's part of the problem, then she can't be part of the solution. She dreams that every smartphone user learns about the supply chain of one substance (of 1000+) in a smartphone. Her most recent book is An Electronic Silent Spring. She currently writes about nature, democracy and technology for Wall Street International Magazine. Visit www.OurWeb.tech and www.ElectronicSilentSpring.com.
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