E-Waste and the Climate Crisis: Creating the New Digital World at What Cost?

ENERGY EXPENDITURES AND NFTs

One aspect of e-waste that we tend to overlook is the energy it takes to operate all of this technology and the strain it puts on our energy sources around the world. A particularly new emerging threat in technology that is creating an issue in the fight against climate change is how Web3 and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are impacting energy use worldwide. An NFT is basically a piece of digital media asset (art or video reel, to name a few examples) with a digital receipt or sticky note attached to it by whoever creates it. NFT’s are selling for exorbitant amounts of money: The Nyan Cat NFT (a popular meme) sold for $580,000. NFTs are the new place for crypto investors to begin parking very hefty amounts of money. The NFT market is booming, with many NFTs being generated daily (“NFTs: The Hot New Fad With a Massive Environmental Cost,” March 29, 2021; frontiergroup.org/blogs/blog/fg/nfts-hot-new-fad-massive-environmental-cost).

What is not being discussed but is becoming apparent is that there is a cost to the environment through the generation of NFTs. NFTs are produced via blockchain technology, the same technology used to create Ethereum and Bitcoin cryptocurrencies. In fact, NFT’s are minted on the Ethereum Blockchain; the amount of energy used for a recent NFT minting process was 369 kilowatt hours. This was more than 10 times as much energy compared to the average transaction on Ethereum Blockchain. To put this into simpler terms, an artist sold two pieces of NFT artwork, and the transaction generated greenhouse emissions that were equivalent to an average U.S. household’s electricity output throughout a 21-year period (“The Unreasonable Ecological Cost of #CryptoArt (Part 1),” Dec. 14, 2020; tinyurl.com/tjm4zcn7). This is an extremely new development in the world of technology use, and its impact on the environment is looking to be a very critical energy issue to consider pursuant to the climate crisis.

E-WASTE IS ON EVERYBODY

E-waste is just one part of the climate crisis, but it is one that often flies under the radar of consumer technology users. Having the hottest new technology and all the convenience of the digital world comes at a price to the planet as well as those living in developing regions of the globe. In order to truly combat e-waste, we must address the issues of planned obsolescence and the drive to consume that is almost inherent for those of us living in a capitalist society. Slowing down and truly considering if it is necessary to buy brand-new technology or to upgrade to the most recent model make up another part of the equation.

E-waste is not just a post-consumer problem. Corporations need to study and address the amount of emissions needed to manufacture products and their reliance on dirty energy to create them. They also need to change the structure of how they sell upgraded products. Without both individual consumers and corporations on board, this issue will never truly be remedied, and e-waste will continue to contribute to our growing global climate crisis.

The Streaming Media Industry Confronts E-Waste

One industry, streaming media, has stepped up to the plate to help solve the conundrum of what to do with older technologies, such as outdated computers, smartphones, and tablets. The Help Me Stream Research Foundation (hmsrf.org), started by Tim Siglin, researches and repurposes new uses for what he terms electronic “junk” to stream key educational messaging. The intent is to put the repurposed devices in the hands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in remote areas across the globe having limited or no connectivity .

An article by Siglin, “Collecting ‘Junk’ for Better Streaming,” in Streaming Media, provides more information (streamingmedia.com/Articles/Columns/Streams-of-Thought/Collecting-Junk-for-Better-Streaming-148838.aspx). Siglin, founding executive director of Help Me Stream, is also a columnist for Streaming Media magazine, a sister publication to Online Searcher. Streaming Media VP and editor-in-chief Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen is the Foundation’s chairman. The Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity, has a connection with the public health program at East Tennessee State University’s Innovation Laboratory that helps teach medical students to identify components from these older computers and transform them into working devices to support electronic medical records and remote medical care.

What does this have to do with libraries? You could consider donating older equipment being discarded from the library to the Foundation if your parent organization permits. You could also organize a donation drive, acting as a collection point for gear that would otherwise end up in a landfill. For more details, and to take a sneak peek at another Foundation initiative that may be of interest to libraries, please visit hmsrf.org/stakeholders/os22. Feel free to also contact the Foundation (donations@hmsrf.org; 202/670-2025) or email Online Searcher’s editor-in-chief (marydee@xmission.com).

– Marydee Ojala