Crave

AT&T charges an iPhone user with a service that's not available on the iPhone.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

I've been a customer of AT&T ever since 2003, when I got myself my first cell phone ever, and I've been a very good one. The proof: I set my bill to autopay from day one and even convinced a few friends to move to AT&T (mostly so that we don't have to use the minutes to talk to each other.)

I found out Thursday that AT&T hasn't been very nice to me.

Each time you buy a computer monitor from Dell's Web site, you have to pay between $8 and $25 for a "State Environmental Fee."

I always wondered how that fee would be spent. After all, last time I was in Vietnam, I spotted many used and dated computers and monitors from Dell and HP in Internet cafes and online gaming centers. There are also shops in Hanoi specializing in gathering broken computers from these brands to sell parts.

A store full of e-waste in India.

(Credit: TreeHugger)

But that's going to change, slightly. On Tuesday, Dell, with its new Electronics Disposition Policy (PDF), officially banned the export of electronic waste to developing countries.

This e-waste includes broken computers, monitors, and computer parts. This is a great move by the company, as once exported, this equipment will probably end up being dumped like regular trash or recycled in informal and often hazardous ways such as smashing and burning in open air.

The scope of the new policy applies to all Dell employees, consultants, independent contractors, outsource service providers, and general services suppliers, and also Dell environmental partners. Compliance is mandatory.

While this is great news, personally I think it would be more helpful if Dell also included dated computer equipment in the list of e-waste. Dated and used computer equipment in working condition can become waste by the time it arrives at its destination, or shortly thereafter.

Nonetheless, Dell's new standard will hopefully raise the bar for other electronics makers in regard to keeping the environment safe from electronic waste.

It's important to note that in the States, Dell has been very active in recycling by partnering with Staples to offer free recycling for its equipment.

When 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley and his crew went to China to record the black market dismantling of electronic waste, or e-waste, the experience was almost as hazardous for the 60 Minutes team as working with the toxic material is for poor Chinese workers.

Jumped by a gang of men overseeing the e-waste operations who tried to take the CBS team's cameras, Pelley's crew managed to escape and bring back footage of the hazardous activities. Pelley's investigation will be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

The Chinese attackers were trying to protect a lucrative business of mining the e-waste -- junked computers, televisions and other old electronic products -- for valuable components, including gold. "They're afraid of being found out. This is smuggling. This is illegal," says Jim Puckett, founder of the Basel Action Network, a group working to stop the dumping of toxic materials in poor countries that certifies ethical e-waste recyclers in the United States. "A lot of people are turning a blind eye here. And if somebody makes enough noise, they're afraid this is all going to dry up."

E-waste workers in Guiyu, China, where Pelley's team videotaped, put up with the dangerous conditions for the $8 a day the job pays. They use caustic chemicals and burn the plastic parts to get at the valuable components, often releasing toxins that they not only inhale, but release into the air, the ground and the water. Potable water must now be trucked into Guiyu and scientists have discovered that the city has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. Pregnancies in Guiyu are six times more likely to result in miscarriages, and seven out of 10 children there have too much lead in their blood.

Starting October 1, Samsung will commence with a new recycling program for its consumer electronics products.

Anyone in any U.S. state will be able to take their old, used, or unwanted Samsung-brand electronics bought in the U.S. to a collection site--either a permanent drop-off point or a local recycling event--at no cost to the owner. You can also bring electronics not made by Samsung, but they'll charge you for it.

Looking to unload an old Samsung product? The company will now take it back for free.

(Credit: Samsung)

Samsung says it is partnering with recycling programs "that do not incinerate, landfill, or export toxic waste to developing countries." The only things it will not take back are any home appliances.

The program is called Samsung Recycling Direct and was actually announced last week, but it's important enough to write about, even if it's a bit tardy.

More electronics companies are getting on the direct recycling bandwagon, following several retailers, many of whom have begun their own programs though not all of them are free.

Though the key to slowing the rate of electronic waste we produce is to buy products that last longer than two years and are made from recyclable materials, this is a good start. It might even delay our need for a real-life Wall-E.

(Credit: Crave UK)

For most people, the goal of consumer electronics is to keep the cost down as much as possible without compromising performance or quality. The problem with progress is that once everyone can afford a massive flat TV the footballers, hedge-fund managers and rappers have nothing left to prove they're more worthwhile than the rest of us.

Enter the great fashion designers of the world, who encourage us to purchase fragrances that are mostly water mixed with some chemicals, and clothes made in the same third-world sweat shops as your local high-street brands, but at a massive premium. It wasn't going to be long before they saw the money to be made from flogging standard electronics in a pimped case. This started when manufacturers worked out that gluing 300 pieces of crystal or adding cheap gold paint at least doubled the asking price.

In terms of hardware, we're absolutely certain the Armani TV will be exactly the same as one of Samsung's existing models. We don't think Giorgio himself has been working his fingers to the bone, hand-etching printed circuit boards. If we're honest, that's no bad thing at all, because Samsung TVs are great as they are. Of course, you'll be paying a good wodge more for Giorgio's telly, so what will you actually get for your money? Well, according to the Internets there will be a four-color power switch, which will allow customization of the Samsung/Armani logo on the front. Outstanding.

The TV will come with two remote controls, one simple and one more complex. We're guessing most footballers will opt for the simpler pebble-shaped one. Hopefully they'll be able to understand you need to press the buttons to change channels, and not end up grunting in anger and lobbing the "rock" at the screen.

The Armani TV will be available this summer, in both 46- and 52-inch screen sizes. No word on price, as you'd imagine, but we're going to guess it won't be cheaper than the standard Samsung model.

So, if you've got an Escalade, a chunky gold identity bracelet, a platinum necklace and hos in different area codes, this may very well be the TV for you. If you care about money, why not buy one of Samsung's other TVs--you know, one of the models that doesn't snort powdered LCD and tell you how brilliant they are?

(Source: Crave UK)

There are all sorts of tech geeks working at CNET. I'm an energy geek, both at home and at work.

So how do you do the "green building" thing? Well, if you're wealthy enough to hire a sustainability architect, you have a new home built with bamboo flooring and solar panels (and lots of closet space.)

Click on this image for a photo gallery of assorted green home retrofits, including a pellet stove.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)

For all the rest of us, I've assembled a photo gallery on ways to "green" your lifestyle using some examples from my home. For a very thorough run-down of resources, check out "How to green your life" from CNET's Elsa Wenzel.

Biomass, baby
Perhaps the most unusual thing I did was have a pellet stove installed last year. It's my attempt to fuel my home with a domestic, renewable fuel: compressed sawdust.

Overall, it's great. It burns hot enough to heat the downstairs of our small home and a blazing fire is just a nice thing to have in your living room.

Is it green? Yes, because it's made from a byproduct of wood mills. If the wood is harvested sustainably, then it's renewable. The Pellet Fuels Institute, an industry group, claims that burning pellets is "carbon neutral" since trees capture the carbon dioxide from burning the fuel, but that's not something I've been able to verify independently.

Unlike old-fashioned wood stoves, they don't give off a lot of smoke, which I'd rather not breathe.

I think the biggest concern facing pellet stove owners--and the industry as a whole--is availability of fuel. A few years ago, there was a shortage that pushed up prices and made it hard to find fuel during the winter.

That's being addressed because there are more mills being constructed to boost production, said Don Kaiser, the executive director of the Pellet Fuels Institute, which is lobbying for renewable energy tax rebates on pellet stove purchases.

Even without a rebate, the economics on purchasing a stove look pretty good, at least for me and my New England home. A back-of-the-envelope calculation I did showed that our overall heating bills aren't going down dramatically when all costs are included.

But we did notice something remarkable when we looked at our older bills: natural gas heating prices have shot up, nearly doubling in the nine years I've lived in my home. So with an alternate heat source, I've got a hedge against rising, or volatile, fossil fuel prices.

Of course, you need storage space for your fuel. And if you have a bad back, don't bother. You need to lug 40-pound bags around to feed the stove as often as once a day.

Efficiency
Alternative energy sources aside, efficiency is really the name of the game in the home.

Experts refer to energy efficiency as an energy "source" all its own that should have the same incentives that renewable sources like solar and wind have. Still, there are some tax incentives for doing the basics like insulation in the attic.

Click here to see all of News.com's Earth Day 2008 stories, photo galleries, and more.

Smart grid technology is starting to creep out into the power grid. For consumers, the most visible result will be some sort of in-home display that shows the cost of energy at a given time during the day.

Depending on the utility energy-efficiency program, consumers can choose to dial down their consumption themselves or have the utility propose an action as it did in a yearlong GridWise trial in the Seattle area. For example, the utility could turn the gas off from a dryer for a few minutes.

Overall, the GridWise trial found that it lowered consumers' energy costs by about 10 percent and took the strain off the grid during peak times, which could eliminate the need to build new power plants.

For starters, people can use smart power strips that cut down on the "vampire load" that most electronics pull even when they are idle.

For a more all-encompassing view on green retrofits, Elsa's piece offers many places to get more information. Also, last fall, I hosted an Ask the Editors forum on green buildings where many topics were discussed.

Another recent case study is Bill Nye (the Science Guy), who opened his 1939 home to the New York Times Magazine and offered his prescription for green living with style.

It took about two decades for the packaging creature known as the "oyster" or "clamshell" to conquer the world of consumer electronics. But the hard-to-open casings of plastic considered by many to be toxic could start to disappear soon, according to some experts in packaging and design.

Although clamshells remain widespread, a small but growing number of companies are housing products in packages that are not only easier to open, but manufactured more efficiently with recycled or recyclable ingredients.

Oyster packaging forms what may seem like a hermetic seal around a wide array of goods, including MP3 players, Webcams, USB drives, mice, headsets, software, printer cartridges, and batteries.

"Clamshell packaging is so over," said Wendy Jedlicka, a packaging designer. "We know it sucks. We're fixing that." Jedlicka belongs to the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a group that met last week in San Francisco that has grown to more than 300 member organizations in a few years.

More than a handful of packaging manufacturers have introduced eco-friendly alternatives to oysters within the past several years.

However, retailers have favored the rigid clamshell casings that deter shoplifters, are easy and cheap to ship and store, and offer a peek of the product inside.

The expansion of big-box stores, particularly bulk outlets that lack display cases, will drive demand for clamshells by 5.3 percent each year to $2.7 billion in sales within the next two years, according to the Freedonia Group, a market research firm. At that pace, more than 8 billion oyster packs will be produced by 2015.

However, growth could be hampered by corporations' sustainability efforts, along with spikes in petroleum prices, the firm added. Despite the energy-intensive process of spinning plastics from fossil fuels, traditional plastics still remain cheaper than those from recycled or plant-based materials.

Although greener alternatives to clamshells are a small niche in the packaging world, they may win favor with the public for reasons totally unrelated to their environmental footprint.

Clamshells can make products impossible to free with bare hands. Some attempts at grappling with knives and scissors have led to amputated fingertips and severed tendons. "The degree of injuries can be pretty severe, depending on the frustration of getting a package open," said Melissa Barton, an emergency room physician at Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit.

She sees at least one patient each week--more around Christmas--suffer cuts and worse, usually from box cutters and other tools used to puncture and pry open the packaging.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that there were some 6,500 emergency room visits related to plastic packaging in 2004.

Some packaging makers are creating resealable, snap-out, or perforated designs that could reduce the amount of wounds and cursing triggered by clamshells.

Despite those steps, environmental groups dislike the toxicity and waste of using virgin plastics for disposable purposes. Some people go to extremes to avoid plastic trimmings for everyday goods, but find few practical alternatives.

"Consumers are becoming much more sensitive to the environmental ramifications of excess packaging," said Tod Marks, a senior editor at Consumer Reports.

The magazine for two years published an "Oyster Awards" hall of shame for hard-to-open packaging. Last year's winner was an Oral-B electric toothbrush tucking clamshells into a tight plastic and cardboard shell.

There weren't enough changes in packaging to warrant awards for 2008, but Consumer Reports will focus on packaging sustainability later this year, Marks said.

Packaging accounts for nearly one-third of consumer garbage, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. And plastics comprise 12 percent of U.S. waste each year, but are rarely recycled, while some scientists fear that irresponsible dumping is making a plastic soup of the world's oceans.

The European Union attempts to regulate packaging design and waste. California's Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Law encourages the use of recycled plastics. Yet such rules are rare in the United States, where businesses rather than government are driving dramatic changes.

"We're aggressively attacking the clamshell market," said Jeff Kellogg, a vice president of MeadWestvaco. Its Natralock line of packaging features a pop-out, glue-free clear plastic display "blister" surrounded by paperboard of one-third recycled content. Plant-based plastics could also be used.

Compared with clamshells, Natralock packages cost up to 30 percent less and weigh half as much, which cuts shipping expenses, Kellogg added. They also require less energy to seal in a factory, and can run on traditional equipment.

Competing products include Rohrer's Eco-View Pak, a mix of chipboard with a plastic display bubble.

Winterborne's Enviroshell packaging mixes a recycled-plastic blister with cardboard of more than two-thirds recycled material and soy-based inks. The board and plastic aren't fused together, enabling both to be recycled.

Enviroshell packaged the Xbox 360 when it launched in Wal-Mart stores in 2005. Toshiba began using the packaging in 2006 for storage devices.

Wal-Mart's sustainability goals (PDF) include reducing the amount of packaging in its stores by 5 percent by 2013. Its Sam's Club outlets halved the amount of packaging for digital media in 2006.

Phasing out PVC
In the United States, those attempts would remove millions of pounds of landfill-bound trash as well as wasted energy and greenhouse gas pollution, the equivalent of taking 213,000 trucks off the road every year, according to Wal-Mart. To help meet a goal of becoming packaging neutral by 2025, Wal-Mart's packaging scorecard measures suppliers' sustainability.

The retailer is also one of many phasing out toxic PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, formerly the main material for oyster packaging. Its manufacture and disposal is believed to release cancer-linked chemicals, including dioxins.

Other brands shunning PVC include Target, Sears, Johnson & Johnson, and Bath & Body Works. Wal-Mart and Apple worked together to develop iPod packaging free of PVC. Microsoft discontinued PVC in software packaging in 2005 and has since stopped using clamshells in half of its packed products.

PET, the common replacement for PVC, is widely considered better but still ecologically harmful. Plastics from PET, or polyethylene terephthlate, are also commonly used for soda bottles, and are being recycled for use in electronics packaging.

Participation in the Sustainable Design Coalition by businesses across a swath of industries, including electronics, clothing, cosmetics, and food, proves that progress in packaging is accelerating, according to Scott Ballantine, a packaging engineer at Microsoft. He has driven the use of PET recycled from Coke and Pepsi bottles for use in packaging.

Ballantine said he imagines that producers might eventually institute take-back programs for packaging, such as those Dell and HP have instituted to collect used electronics and accessories.

"Maybe someday there will be an 'unpacking' station in the Costcos and Wal-Marts of the world where customers can remove the packaging and companies can collect the materials," he said.

Think before you toss your broken cell phone in the garbage.

Three million tons of electronic waste, like these monitors, end up in landfills every year, according to the EPA.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)

And your old CRT television or desktop monitor, for that matter. Three million tons of electronic waste go into landfills every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and much of what's thrown away is either in good condition or at least fixable.

Many options are available from manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard and Dell and retailers like Staples that voluntarily take back broken-down tech and recycle or refurbish it.

If that's too tough to figure out, there are third-party companies that are dying for your old tech toys. Earth2Tech, Om Malik's green tech blog, has a nice roundup of Web sites that aim to keep your gadgets up and running--or, at the very least, out of landfills.

Sites like FixYa (see the Webware review) and PDAParts.com will give you repair advice, while PartStore.com, BuyMyTronics.com, and SecondRotation, will find loving adoptive homes for retired stuff.

See also: Webware's Elsa Wenzel suggests similar sites.

The batteries in hybrid cars now get recharged slightly whenever the driver taps the brakes. If research at Honda pans out, heat from the engines could do the same thing.

The Japanese auto giant has released a paper detailing how a Rankine cycle co-generation unit could help recharge the battery in a hybrid and thereby increase gas mileage, according to Green Car Congress. Honda put the Rankine unit in a test car (a Honda Stream) and found that the unit generated more electricity than regenerative braking. However, the unit isn't very efficient so more work will be required before Honda can put one of these in cars.

Waste heat, according to some, is one of the untapped sources of power in the world. Some have proposed harnessing the waste heat from nuclear plants to run water purification systems or produce hydrogen.

The tough part is that it's not easy. Paul Marcoux, vice president of green engineering at Cisco Systems, was recently asked if computer companies could harvest heat from processors and hard drives and turn that into power. Probably not, he said. The temperature generally doesn't get hot enough.

In a Rankine unit, a water pump keeps water under high pressure. Heat from the gas engine in a hybrid is then captured, compressed, and used to make steam out of the water. The steam then turns a generator to make electricity, which charges the battery that runs the electric motor.

Hybrids have two motors: one gas, one electric. In conventional hybrids, the electric motor powers the car around town while the gas motor does more of the work on the freeway. General Motors and Tesla Motors are building cars in which the gas motor doesn't drive the car at all, but runs a generator which charges the battery for the electric motor. Conceivably, a Rankine system could be used in either but would probably work better in a conventional hybrid because the gas engine is larger.

Right now, Honda's Rankine unit is only about 13 percent efficient.

Honda is also trying to bring efficient, cleaner, high-mileage diesels to the United States.