Digital Music: Coming to a Landfill Near You
Tuesday April 24, 2007
Americans buy about a billion music CDs every year, and many of those eventually end up in landfills. Music downloaded from the Internet is environmentally friendly, but discarded i-Pods, MP3 players and other consumer electronics contain toxic metals and chemicals. How can you keep the music playing without striking a sour note for the environment?Photo courtesy of Jane M. Sawyer
Comments
yes, consumer electronics leave their mark when discarded, but less well known is the scar they leave on the landscape when they are produced. Many use a mineral, Coltan (colombo tantalum), which has decimated parts of the congo basin, in particular the critical habitat for gorillas, and other vulnerable species such as the Okapi. You should look at some of the blogs from the people trying to do something about the protection of these species (eg. http://www.wildlifedirect.org/gorillaprotection). It’s quite a struggle…