Opinion - News Analysis

Upgrading to an iPod

Lucy Siegle

e-waste is becoming one of the major environmental issues of our time.

EVER SINCE I received my new iPod Nano, I've felt a bit punch drunk. Perhaps this is because I have never been ahead of the technology curve before, or indeed even anywhere near it. Or perhaps it is just because it is such a remarkably beautiful, yet tiny, thing. In any case, I'm taking this opportunity to confess that I now own one, before one of my friends catches sight of the distinctive white headphones and asks, "Is that ethical?" — which is what they do about everything unless I'm weaving with hemp and listening to dolphin music.

But it is a fair question and something I should have considered before being seduced by Apple's relentless marketing drive, thus transgressing one of the first `stay independently minded' rules of ethical consumerism. On the other hand, the Nano, which is smaller than my mobile phone (it has less of an environmental footprint), also contains a flash memory chip, a revolutionary piece of technology that makes devices 10 to 15 per cent lighter than current models, saving on huge amounts of manufacturing waste.

It also means that I can download music rather than buying vast numbers of CDs, swathed in polycarbonate packaging. `Ethical' downloading site www.abovethesky.com, which campaigns against CD waste and sells only independent music, claims that hundreds of thousands of wasted CDs are being needlessly sent out by the music industry, the bulk of which end up going straight to landfill. Then there's the fact that the flash chip also has the potential to replace hard disk drives on laptops and mobile devices — a good thing, as hard drives are unreliable, often leading to more waste appliances, junked in landfill before their time.

In fact, it's precisely this kind of e-waste that is shaping up to be one of the major environmental issues of our time. Moore's law, coined back in the 1960s, put forward the notion that the amount of computing power that can be bought for a certain amount of money doubles every 18 months. It's certainly true today, when the average lifespan of a laptop is two years. Ninety per cent of our electronic waste is thrown into landfill, particularly scary when you think that each computer contains several hundred toxic chemicals. According to European Union figures, consumer electronics are responsible for 40 per cent of the lead found in its landfills.

So, the flipside of Moore's law is that consumer appetite means we're junking technology like there's no tomorrow, making it difficult to have a tomorrow that doesn't look like an e-waste nightmare, full of TV and phone mountains. It's also why I'm duty bound to hold on to my new Nano, irrespective of the allure of whatever technology tries to steal its crown, until this particular technology curve is a dim and distant memory. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu