$60 Billion Potential Hiding in Your Discarded Gadgets
$60 Billion Potential Hiding in Your Discarded Gadgets
In rich nations, just a fraction of e-waste is mined for critical metals. We’re going to have to up our game.
"Anwar’s job, scrounging for discarded electronics in [Nigerian] Ikeja Computer Village, one of the world’s biggest and most hectic marketplaces for used, repaired, and refurbished electronic products.... "
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Idk, I'm more into re-using. Old pc? A home server! Old laptop? A home server! Old phone? You guessed it, a home server! Alternatively, I can give 'em to a friend/relative if they happen to need one. And FUBAR stuff goes into its own bin in case I need spare components.
There's a point where I have more devices than I can responsibly use. Here's what I currently use:
- RetroPie setup - plugged in behind my TV, gets used every couple months - I have a few more ARM SOCs that just sit in a box somewhere
- NAS - was my original PC (Phenom II from 2010), and I upgraded to my previous PC (Ryzen 1700)
- laptop for kids to play games on - from 2018; my older ones died due to water or physical damage
- my old phone - Moto G Power; I use it around the house while my new phone (Pixel 8) is charging or something
And stuff I have lying around the house:
- Phenom II x4 - first DIY PC, only exists for parts
- GTX 960 - I put my old GTX 750 Ti into my NAS because the 1700 doesn't have a built-in GPU (the Phenom II mobo has one though); it's there in case one of our GPUs dies before we upgrade
- older AMD PC - FX-6300 I think? We'll probably give it to the kids as their first PC, assuming my SO and I don't upgrade first
I'll probably get rid of the Phenom II stuff once we upgrade one of our PCs, because it's just not worth using anymore due to how old it is and how much power it draws (my Ryzen 1700 is more efficient).
But yeah, I reuse as much as I can.
Another idea for android phones is octo4a (octopi for android) if you're into 3d printing. That's what my nexus 6 with a dead display is doing. Also you can run docker on 'em if you can build the kernel, and it's not too ancient (AFAIK, docker needs 3.something, so it's like android 6 in general, maybe?), but I personally never got to it, unfortunately
Wait does that mean I could make a kubernetes cluster of discarded android phones?
Yeah, probably
Totally. Most people are surprised at how little compute you need to make something useful if you put the right OS/software on it.
I used to do that too, until mobile devices and the Raspberry Pi and similar started maturing. While I now have many more devices, they use a lot less material and a lot less energy, while also being much more capable than my tables full of museum pieces