@strypey Recycling should be only the last step - anyone who sells electronic devices should legally be required to provide any information necessary to carry out a repair (for electronic devices the barest minimum would be the schematics, documentation on how to reprogram any used EEPROM or NAND chips (if signatures or encryption is used, instructions on how to change the signature key or encryption key, or the keys used need to be included, with signing and/or encrypting instructions so the reprogrammed software or data works) and documentation of any UART or JTAG ports), plus manufacturers should be required to either use standardized parts, or stock a certain quality of replacement parts and sell them to anyone who wants to repair the product at cost+shipping+set profit percentage (for most products this is quite easy to do - a few hundred or thousand extra parts just needs to be added to the parts order and anything left over just needs to be shoved into a box and mailed off once someone orders).

As above would result in a massive reduction of electronic devices that are e-waste from the factory, allow the re-use of perfectly fine electronic devices for far longer than the usual usage cycle (as for power usage concerns, manufacturing a new device seems to use far more electricity than running an inefficient device for years) and result in re-cycling only occurring after around a decade or longer.

Sadly this will never happen, as not being able to sell things that stop being easily usable within 2 years that end up landfilled is believed to end up with a slight reduction in profits.


To be honest, microsoft, apple and google etc should be held criminally responsible for the rampant environmental destruction they cause - but alas they just keep doing it at an exponential rate (for example, not that you should install it, but windows 11 is designed with an anti-feature where it will refuse to install unless one of the newest approved CPUs with a fTPM inside is installed (for digital handcuffing purposes) and security fixes for windows 10 are being stopped in a few years and sadly most people *will* throw the computer into landfill and buy a new one with 11 instead of installing GNU).