Customers Now Can Return NI Products for Free Recycling

[Aristos Queue]

This story was posted on the NI RSS feed, but the headline was, in my opinion, not attention-grabbing enough. So I'm reposting it here in the Hardware forum, since it is very relevant to those who use hardware.

National Instruments Launches Global Take-Back Program:

Customers Now Can Return NI Products for Free Recycling

http://digital.ni.com/worldwide/bwcontent....62574eb006e50ad

[Yair]

That's great.

<cynicism>

How much polution is generated by transporting the hardware?

</cynicism>

[crelf]

QUOTE (Yair @ Oct 29 2008, 03:43 PM)

<cynicism>How much polution is generated by transporting the hardware?</cynicism>

The pollution that is created to transport the hardware has much less of an impact on the environment than uncontrolled destruction of the potentially toxic materials that are in consumer electronics. Another major issue is that used PC equipment is often passed off to less fortunate communities and third world countries for some more use toward the end of their lives - while that's great that they are continuing to be used, it shifts the responsibility for safer destruction to communities and perhaps cultures that are less knowledgable and/or have less opportunity to pay for safe destruction. I applaud NI for taking this step - old NI hardware may only be a drop in the ocean of the PCBs and components around the world, but every little bit helps, and providing this free service shows that they are taking the responsibility of end of life destruction seriously. :thumbup:

[Kevin Payne]

I wonder how much NI's initiative is prompted by the WEEE Directive here in Europe, which makes manufacturers responsible for end-of-life disposal of electronic waste.