Containership Power Bar Delivers a Message
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 09. 1.06
Design team GIFFIN'TERMEER notes that "Most electronic devices in use everyday are manufactured in one province in China and are delivered to us by containership. People generally do not realize the extreme scale of the infrastructure needed when a single geographic area becomes the primary source; even for things that most people see as insignificant. The largest of these ships hold up to 9,000 40ft containers and are too massive for the Panama Canal. They frequently return to China empty. There is nothing to bring back." TreeHugger also notes that all those wall warts are consuming power- what better way to have this in our face than to turn the banal and ubiquitous power bar into "this ship [which] powers our electronic devices with their cords in its wake" ::Griffintermeer via ::Yanko
80% of electronic waste (TV, stero, computer) discarded by USA consumers is put on container ships bound for Asia and Africa. Get your hands on the DVD "exporting harm".
The article is not correct. Container ships don't go back to China empty. They take our discarded TV, and other E-waste to China where a few bits of copper are recycled and the rest is burned or put in unsafe ditches or landfils.
See the BAN website to view still photos from these movies or order a copy of the movies
"Exporting harm"
"Digital Dump"
http://www.ban.org/photogallery/index.html
You will never buy a new flat screen or iPod if you watch these movies and show them to friends. Your big old Computer monitor with the CRT Tube is leaking 5 pounds of lead into the drinking water of someone in China or Africa. All thanks to container ships and our lack of understand "needs" v. "wants".
The plastic used in most electronics can never be re-used or recycled. It is coated on the inside with toxic chemicals to retard flames. So your old plastic computer monitor case was burned and the small particles drifted into the lungs or settled on the plants somewhere not in your backyard.
See the pictures on the ban.org
website link provided above.
You can do something to change this.
1) Check the list on ban.org of locations in your city or state where you old E-waste will have less risk of being exported to a poor country. But even when kept inside our borders, most small components in E-Waste are not recycled, but rather put in a landfil designed for toxic waste here in the USA. There is no such true thing as E-Waste recycling, not in 2006 at least.
2) Change the behavior of technology companies in the USA. Call all your friends that work at Tech Companies, have them watch the movies, and demand that Dell, HP and US companies ratify the BASEL treaty even if our government will not.
3) Ask your 3 senators to ratify the BASEL treaty that bans E-waste exports. You have 2 US Senators and one in your home state. Then call your 2 House representatives, one in your state, the other in DC.
peace, joe
To me it looks like an oil tanker delivering energy.
thanks for that info joe.
great ship design idea. it does make me think of an oil tanker delivering our energy also. maybe they should design a coal fired power plant one as well.