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The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) is not about preventing garbage in landfills, and frankly it's been 18 years and the sky is not falling
by stefan_ 5y ago
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) is not about preventing garbage in landfills, and frankly it's been 18 years and the sky is not falling.
- MisterTea 5y agoYes but the parent is not stating that. They are stating that a "save the environment" effort is not very environmentally friendly if it makes more waste.
- _Microft 5y agoThey are assuming that these devices would be used long enough for tin whiskers to become a problem. I seriously doubt that RoHS will be causing more waste - because at the point that devices become unusuable, they are on in the trash anyways for completely unrelated reasons (think: bezel to large to be popular, plastic backshell instead of metal or glass, device is too thick, device is too heavy, ...).
- hulitu 5y agoTin whiskers continue to grow even after you device is in the landfill. You basically have a dust of tin which goes into landfil.
- mmastrac 5y agoSaving the environment by reducing actively, acutely hazardous materials and saving the environment via reducing landfill/carbon emissions are completely different goals. As others have pointed out in this thread, reducing landfill waste from electronics is a much more complex problem and just adding leaded solder will not solve it.
- nomel 5y agoThat assumes waste reduction is the goal, rather than lead reduction. With toxic, intelligence reducing [1], materials like lead, maybe some extra waste is a perfectly good trade off. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30600539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30600539
- hulitu 5y agoLast i checked tin was not an edible material. There is a small difference between having tin dust, which you cannot contain, and having electronics containing lead which you can colect and store in a warehouse ( asuming you want to address the problem in the first place).
- cinntaile 5y agoAre you saying that electronics devices continuously let out tin dust so we end up breathing in this stuff?
- stefan_ 5y agoUhm, that is exactly the point that I'm making? That the goal was never save the environment, but rather reduce the exposure to toxic-at-any-concentration things like lead? Hence why I quoted the program name.
- Steltek 5y agoDevices are disposed of (becomes waste) long before they become broken from whiskers. That makes RoHS a net-win by reducing toxic materials from landfills full of phones with broken screens and kitschy doodads with broken plastic.
- adrian_b 5y agoThe sky is not falling in large part because the transition to lead-free solder was simultaneous with the transition to electronic devices that are not repaired and which frequently have a lifetime not much longer than their warranty time. Most current electronic devices are dumped much earlier than when they would fail due to the tin whiskers. Many consumer electronic devices made 50 years ago are still usable without any problems caused by the aging of the soldering or of the semiconductor devices (but old electrolytic capacitors may have to be replaced). The electronic devices that are made now do not have any chances of such a long lifetime, with the exception of a few devices made for special requirements, e.g. military/aerospace.
- zozbot234 5y agoConsumer electronics used to break down all the time 50 years ago. Metal whiskers are not even close to being relevant when other factors impact reliability and durability to a far greater extent.
- hulitu 5y agoThey used to break down and they could and were repaired. Nowadays if something breaks it goes in the garbage can. I had an extension cable which died staying in the basement for a year. When i opened it to check the reason i was shocked. It looked like a spider net made of dust but this was metal.