Recycling the mouse

Just noticed this place across the road from the Skypark studio.

E-Waste Solutions

Decided to complete the lifecycle of my mouse (follow up from this post), so I took it over!

The mouse is now being turned into different things completely - the PCB and electronics will be sent to Irvine, where precious metals will be extracted from the circuit board (theres gold in them thar components), where the plastic casing will head to Govan, where E-Waste Solutions turns it into garden furniture.

This was good news, as I was fairly pessimistic about the recyclability of plastic products. However, it may not be as simple as the rosy story above.

From speaking with the guy in the shop, I don't believe many people actually bring their electronic products to E-Waste shops. There is no financial incentive, and societal education in terms of what happens to products otherwise is low. "People don't care". But is it really the users fault for these pollution problems and >90% of plastic products going to landfill? Or do designers share some of that blame? Can we change this behaviour?

He was supportive of durable, long lasting design, and design for disassembly. In the case of E-Waste Solutions, there are guys in the shop who literally get screwdrivers and take apart the products - separating and sorting plastics, salvaging components. The materials and electronics that make up a product are valuable - but only if they are accessible in the first place.