The other cleantech

Salon's article on how electronic waste is a problem.

It's a problem, and getting bigger. Solving power, air and water are important. But this is the monster hiding under the bed.

There are some ideas out there on recycling plastic (printer cartridges). Or allowing for easy demanufacturing of items for easy reuse/recycling. But this has to be done from the intial design criteria.

Doing so takes a little more time, and while people can throw things away in the local trash, and have someone cart stuff away, nothing will be done.

Heavy metals don't just disappear. They have a nasty habit of sticking around for a while, and most are not as nice as gold.

The fact is, air/water/power are problems that hurt the first world as equally as the third. But exporting trash and toxin will be an expensive solution. Resolving the issue early is the only true solution, everything else is hiding the dust under the rug.