Laptop Review – From Environmental Standpoint
Topics about preserving the environment are so popular these days. Many companies all over the world are now creating measures to be more environment-friendly. One of the good practices to save mother earth is to buy a laptop instead of a desktop PC. A laptop is a compact version of a desktop PC, which means that parts and components are smaller. Making smaller parts will mean less harmful emissions from the manufacturing plants. And in terms of disposal, a laptop will mean lesser waste compared to the desktop PC. Another good thing to note is the fact that many laptop makers today are now complying with environmental standards such as Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment and Restrictions of Hazardous Substances.
An interesting player in the eco-friendly laptop market is the "one Laptop Per Child" project. Their missions is to produce a low cost laptop - the "XO Laptop" - in order to revolutionize the way the world's children are educated. The purpose of the project is to get laptops in the hands of people in third world countries that would not otherwise have access to this technology. But the project is also proving that laptops can be produced for a very low cost - laptops which weigh less than one kilogram and rely on no electricity.
However, there are still some problems that come up when producing eco-friendly laptop computers. In 2009, it is expected that laptop sales will surpass desktop PCs sales for the first time in history. It has been studied that laptops are only kept for an average of three years before being disposed. Therefore, it is important that recyclable laptops are produced. Some other problems that have risen or may possibly rise are listed below along with possible solutions to the problem:
1. Problem: The use of petroleum-filled plastic. Solution: Instead of this material, laptops can be produced with bioplastic-polymers. This type of material is also heat-resistant enough to withstand the heat produced by laptops.
2. Problem: Like any other electronic devices a laptop is dependent on electric power. Solution: Harness the power from the sun. As of today we can already see electronic devices that are powered by solar energy. This will definitely be possible with laptops.
3. Problem: Lead products in the waste. Solution: As mentioned above, the European Union has enacted legal restrictions on lead. President Bush has also followed suit with standards for American lead use.
4. Problem: Spinning hard drives. Solution: Future laptops could reduce their energy use up to 10 percent by replacing hard drives with flash memory, which has no watt-hungry moving parts. Dell debuted a laptop with a 32-gigabyte solid-state drive this year.
Some recent awards winners for laptops that are friendly to the environment include: XO Laptop, Toshiba Portege R500, HP 2710p, Lenovo Thinkpad X300, and the Dell D630.
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