Back from fieldwork in Mumbai where I researched the usage of certain computing devices. A side note from the study was the realization that an entire Indian population lived on recycling electric goods. Here is a picture:

The West surely could learn from this practice. Indeed e-waste has been a big problem, and unfortunately a bigger problem for developing countries: European E-waste Labeled ‘Second-hand’ is Unloaded in Ghana.

An example of awareness project, the WEEE man:

“The WEEE Man is made from the amount of waste electrical and electronic products that an average UK citizen – YOU – will throw away in YOUR lifetime, if YOU carry on disposing of products at the current rate. Currently most of these products go straight into landfill. From January 2006 manufactures & retailers will be responsible for recycling this waste under new EU legislation called the WEEE (Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment) Directive.”

An initiative of interest. We have already mentioned the project “Sharer” by Vinay Venkatraman and James Tichenor:

“The idea came to Ron back in March of 2001, as he and his wife Kaori were admiring the PhotoTag.org site, which tracks disposable cameras loosed into the wild. He already knew about the popularity of WheresGeorge.com (which tracks U.S. currency by serial number), and that got him thinking: what other physical object might people enjoy tracking? A few minutes later, after a glance at his full bookshelf, the idea of tracking books occurred to him.”

Check bookcrossing.com!