When old electronics meet their end, much ends up becoming toxic waste in China

Old computers and other used-up appliances are creating polluted environments in Asia, the final resting place for much of the world's electronic goods, reports the China Daily newspaper.

Known as "e-waste," more than 75 percent of televisions, computers and other home electronics discarded by the developed world end up bound for Asia. Up to 90 percent of the old electronics goes to China, according to the Beijing-based Science and Technology Daily, the official newspaper of China's Ministry of Science and Technology.

However, only 10 percent of the electronics that go to China are recycled for reuse. The rest gets burned, destroyed or otherwise reduced to poisonous end-products.

Inside computers and other electronics are gold, copper and other reusable precious metals. This makes the 90 percent of discarded electronics not recycled a viable enterprise for people looking to extract those precious metals. However, many of these "electronics harvesters" use simple and environmentally unfriendly processes to get the metals out, such as putting the machines through acid baths.

The result is that lead, mercury and other chemicals are released into the atmosphere – through toxic gasses – and put into lakes and rivers through wastewater systems. The harvesters are burning the plastic cases, melting lead-based monitor glass and simply tossing out the undesirable by-products of precious metal extraction.

In some cities that are hotspots for the metal extraction business, pollution levels are much higher than American or European standards.

In the Guiyu area, an agricultural sector in south China that many e-processers have set up shop, the groundwater became so contaminated that drinking water had to be brought in from an area 18 miles away, according to a 2001 report from the Seattle-based toxic trade watchdog Basel Action Network.

Sediment samples from the area showed that the groundwater had so much lead in it that it would have been considered 212 times more toxified than acceptable standards if it came from Europe's Rhine River.

"Tin was found at levels 152 times the EPA threshold. Chromium in one sample was at levels 1,338 times the EPA threshold level," the report added.

A major source of this e-waste are unsuspecting good Samaritans in America thinking they are helping the environment: Much of the old electronics donated by people and businesses for recycling in the U.S. instead gets exported into the world market.

"Informed recycling industry sources estimate that between 50 to 80 percent of the e-waste collected for recycling in the western U.S. are not recycled domestically," according to the BAN report.

From there, the supply market takes over, and often metal extraction companies win.

The supply market of old electronics sways in favor of these shops because they often offer higher prices for the goods than recycling outfits can.

The supply is good, too: the volume of e-waste from the United States is "estimated at 5 to 7 million tons," the report said.

In China alone – excluding the e-waste that is brought into the country – "about 150 million television sets, washing machines, refrigerators, air-conditioners and computers are discarded every year in China," the China Daily reported, using statistics from the China Home Electronics Association.

For the American market, the BAN report from 2001 posited that e-waste numbers would rise by 2006 thanks to the proliferation of High-Definition Television – flat-screen TVs – obsolescing old television technology, and the fact that most computers bought today are replacements for an old one that must be thrown out.

The world market for e-waste is one that is mostly unregulated, but a limited number of other countries are involved. Outside of China, other countries in the metal extraction business include India and Pakistan. The Middle Eastern country of Dubai is another major collector of discarded electronics, but it acts as a middleman: most of what it receives is re-exported out to China and other countries.

Man documents steady weight loss from active Wii video gaming

Using Nintendo’s Wii gaming console can help shed the pounds, one man found from experience.

His name is Mickey DeLorenzo, and the only thing he changed in his lifestyle was adding daily, 30-minute sessions of playing sports games on his Wii – a gaming console where you move around in real life and your actions are emulated onscreen.

By just spending 30 minutes each day playing simulated boxing, tennis or baseball, DeLorenzo has lost 9 pounds since starting his “Wii Sports Experiment” on December 3. The experiment included utilizing a body fat caliper and a calorie-burning calculator to track his weight loss.

“I lost almost 2 percent of my body fat by doing nothing more than playing video games for an extra 30 minutes every day,” DeLorenzo wrote on his blog. He did not change anything else in his daily routine, but he now weighs 172 pounds, versus starting out at 181 pounds.

In addition to reducing his body fat, his resting heart rate fell by more than 10 points and his Body Mass Index fell from 25.2 to a straight 24, taking him out of the “overweight” category and into the “normal” range on the BMI scale.

Aggressively playing Wii Tennis for just fifteen minutes burned an average of 92 calories, DeLorenzo found. Bowling took up 77 calories. The best workout, though, was boxing, at a rate of 125 calories for a 15-minute game of jabs and hooks.

For comparison, an hour of bowling at your local alley can burn around 250 calories for an average person of 190 pounds, according to the web site ShapeFit.com. That equates to using 62.5 calories per 15 minutes at a leisurely pace.

"I'm on my 15 minutes (of fame) here," DeLorenzo jokes. His story of losing weight with a Wii has given him national exposure through the mainstream media.

Using “active” video games like the Wii as a form of exercise is nothing new: Last year, a pilot fitness program in West Virginia integrated Konami’s video game Dance Dance Revolution into P.E. classes for more than 150 middle schools.

Butterflies inspire new LED illumination technology

An ingenious method of efficiently emitting light has come from a unique inspiration: butterflies.

The science behind higher-emission light emitting diodes (LED) comes from the fluorescent patches found on the wings of the African swallowtail butterfly. LED technology has been around for decades, but this new method of LED manufacture allows the diode to shine brighter.

The realization for the new form of diode comes from the wing structure of the butterfly. African swallowtails are dark colored with small spots of bright blue or green on their wings. The wings have scales that act like photonic crystals that provide intense fluorescent light. The scales have mirrors under them to direct light. With the butterflies, pigment in their wings absorbs ultra-violet light and emits it as a bright blue-green shade. The butterflies use the scales to signal to each other.

For the LEDs, scientists at MIT used actual photonic crystals to get the same effect. A lattice design etched into the crystals, implanted in the upper levels of LED’s design, makes the light emitted shine brighter.

As previously reported on NewsTarget, LED technology has made advances to a point where LEDs could soon emit enough light to be considered an alternative to incandescent light bulbs. While LEDs are much more expensive, they also last a lot longer: approximately 100,000 hours. It also would save energy compared to conventional lighting.

LEDs date back to the 1950s, when an engineer at RCA observed that gallium arsenide emits an infrared light. The first infrared LED was developed soon afterward in 1961 by engineers at Texas Instruments, who accomplished this by electrifying gallium arsenide. A year later, the first visible-light LEDs appeared thanks to Nick Holonyak, Jr. of General Electric.

The most popular material for LEDs today is still gallium arsenide – which is used to make red and infrared LEDs – but gallium phosphide and gallium nitrite is used for other colors. LEDs are used for electronic signage, traffic lights and car taillights, among other uses.

Investment in green technology on the rise nationwide

A turnaround in Silicon Valley is happening, and the product is green technology.

Newfound venture capital investment in clean environment technology – spanning from alternative energy such as solar panels and hybrid cars to new methods of solving environmental problems through the use of nanotechnology – grew rapidly in 2006. Growth in the industry accounted for a more than $250 million increase between the first and third quarters of last year in the valley, according to an annual report released January 28 by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a research organization in San Jose, California.

The upward trend to invest in clean energy in the valley has been reflected nationwide, according to numbers from the National Venture Capital Association: In 2006, venture capitalists invested $727 million in 39 alternative energy start-up companies, compared to $195 million invested in a little more than half the number of start-ups the previous year.

Silicon Valley, an epicenter of computer and Internet technology, was hit hard when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. However, while the valley often goes through boom-and-bust cycles, the investment in green technology appears to be one to stay, says Russell Hancock, the chief executive of Joint Venture.

"These waves are nothing new," Hancock told New York Times reporter Laurie J. Flynn. "But the last one was full of hype and excess, and we had to go through a powerful period of readjustment. This time the investing feels more sober and well thought out."

Efforts to advance green technology have, in recent times, dovetailed with other technologies: with the money spent last year in Silicon Valley to produce clean technologies, 15 percent went to companies in the semiconductor industry and nearly a quarter went to software firms.

The increase in investment could correlate to an increase in political lobbying for environmentally friendly technologies and higher efficiency requirements coming from the venture capitalists themselves, according to the New York Times. Venture capitalists invested in clean energy have recently met with members of Congress, people in the Bush administration, the U.S. Energy Department and many of the 2008 Presidential candidates to promote clean technology.