Thursday, 16 April 2015

E- waste; Bromine flame retardants

· what are brominate flame retardants and why are they needed in computers?
Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are mixtures of man-made chemicals that are added to a wide variety of products, including for industrial use, to make them less flammable. They are used commonly in plastics, textiles and electrical/electronic equipment.

· what are companies doing about it?      a.   Dell?     b. Apple

Dell
-         Dell designs and engineers its products with an eye toward lowering their impacts on the environment throughout their entire life cycle. It’s all part of our Design for Environment (DfES) program. At the earliest stages of product development, we incorporate responsible ingredients selection, reduction of environmentally sensitive materials, increased energy efficiency, extension of product life span and design for disassembly. More information on our DfES program can be found here.

Apple
-         Apple has updated their products without any harmful materials (like PVC, BFR, Mercury, and Arsenic); they have removed all of these dangerous chemicals and pledged that they would do it by 2008; Apple has also started a take-back program for their products
· Find out all the chemicals used in the making of a computer:
Chemicals: Lead, Mercury, Chromium, Cadmium, Brominated flame retardants (BFRs), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), and PVC (polyvinyl chloride)

· how can St Pats students do somethin to recognize Earth Day and increase Awareness of E waste?
St. Pat’s can host an Earth day event where everyone student in every grade can learn about the dangers in our environment, and we can make posters to notify people about E-Waste which is important; this will allow us to share our knowledge of E-Waste, and other harmful products that affect the environment to other students in the school


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