Our Sea, Our Future

Biodegradable Material for Electronic Equipment

 

Hamida Amalia

Bandung Institute of Technology

 

When I heard about this contest, I was remembering my first conference about living environment held by Bobo magazine, the oldest kids’ magazine in Indonesia. It was 2001 and I was in fifth grade, more than 30 children gathered from almost all provinces to make a declaration called Declaration of Children Conference 2001 in Living Environment. This declaration consists of two main ideas, The Water and The Waste. I was involved in composing The Waste declaration which one of the point says, “We will separate wastes between the organic and the non-organic ones.” After this declaration was accepted by all of delegations, it was given to The State Minister for Environment as a promise from us to protect our environment.

 

Time goes by. World changes every second, making many differences in each aspect of our life. One aspect which changes rapidly is technology around electronic equipments. When declaration was made, cellular phone was a rare gadget taken by elementary students. But nowadays, every little kid in town brings this thing as communication need from their parents. Now, let us imagine what will happen if all of those cellular phones are broken then asking their parents to buy the new one. How many cellular phones do become non-organic wastes? How we can process the waste? Is recycling a right solution to solve this problem? As one of the delegation who makes a promise to my nation, I have an obligation to give another solution better than what my friends made eight years ago about these non-organic things.

 

Besides the age shifting of electronic equipment users, kinds of electronic good which develop every season make the problem of electronic waste or e-waste getting worse. iPod, BlackBerry, and Nintendo’s Wii are examples of common technology upgrading. If there is a new edition of them launched, everybody seems to have the newest one as part of lifestyle. On the other hand, not every company handles their waste well. Based on Greenpeace data, Nintendo is the worst company who manages their e-waste, with 0.8 as its index in November 2008. The first, second, and third place are Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson with their score are 7.5, 6.9, and 5.7.

 

This condition may become a huge problem in the future when the number of people increases and it is impossible to find wide area for e-waste recycling. Where we will process them is a question we have to answer together, if we want a safe and green environment for our children.

 

My opinion about biodegradable material for electronic equipment could be a good solution for electronic company to make this earth a better world for human living. Perhaps, this suggestion seems absurd but I have information that two electronic companies, Asus and Fujitsu, have been becoming a pioneer in the making of eco-book. They have used bamboo and cedar wood to replace the using of PVC for laptop’s body. PVC produces hazardous gases for our environment such as chlorinated dioxins, a persistent material if it is burnt.

 

My optimistic mind says that if we concern about researches in biochemistry to find compatible materials for electronic equipment, the pile of broken keyboards which I found its photo in internet will be disappeared because its component can be eaten by bacteria. I have heard that some researchers have found the biodegradable plastic from starch. That is one step ahead to eco-friendly electronic equipment if this discovery develops in to the making of PVC. Even though other scientists say that biodegradable plastic will make two new problems about the using of farming area and genetically modified organism issue, I think it is an interesting topic which our scientists have to find out more comprehensive. After we have done this project successfully, I believe that our chance to discover other materials will be opened, like biodegradable integrated circuit or biodegradable memory card.

 

To answer this challenge, I wish I could engage in a research that involved microbiology, biochemistry, and ecology together to find those materials. I know I still need some help from other majors like chemistry engineering, electrical engineering, and material engineering. From this research, I hope we can make zero-waste consumption, a principle states that everything which consumed by human can be recycled by nature.

 

I understand that the path toward our goal is never easy. But with dream, hard work, and pray, we can change word impossible to I’m possible!

 

References

 

Deklarasi Konferensi Anak 2001 tentang Lingkungan Hidup Majalah Bobo http://greenflavour.blogspot.com/2008/10/biodegradable-laptops-solution-to-e.html (June 23, 2009) http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/what-s-in-electronic-devices (June 23, 2009) http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/the-e-waste-problem# (June 23, 2009) http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-up (June 23, 2009)