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This study underscores the potential of wood-derived nanomaterials like LCNF to reduce electronic waste (e-waste) associated with conventional PCB materials and

This study underscores the potential of wood-derived nanomaterials like LCNF to reduce electronic waste (e-waste) associated with conventional PCB materials and promote the development of a more eco-friendly electronics, contributing to sustainable, high-performance ecoPCBs and advancing green technology. So many trendy eco-virtue-signaling buzzwords, but as anyone who has worked with attempting to repair FR-1/FR-2 (SRBP) PCBs will tell you, they've been making them out of cellulose-derived materials for around a century; but they just aren't very good. "Sustainable" = "doesn't last very long and is impossible to repair, sustaining the business of selling you a new one".

hinkley 1y ago
I’ve heard the rayon process, which can take (m)any natural fiber source and convert it into something vaguely like a synthetic silk, has quite a pollution footprint. The more you have to process the fibers to be like a niche or synthetic fiber the more it becomes greenwashing. Method Inc went through a phase where they made containers out of virgin materials because the overall ecological footprint was several times better than the best we could hope for plastic recycling, and that was before we found out plastic recycling is half sham. A lot of the trick was making thinner containers out of specialty materials that were lower volume than the waste stream from plastic recycling. Eventually they figured out a recyclable material that is as light as the disposable ones, so they get the best of both worlds. Unfortunately they only use those for hand soap refills.
xg15 1y ago
Yup, this was also what irked me in the rationale of this paper: Combatting e-waste is a good cause, but this is not what the paper is doing - it's alleviating some of the harmful side-effects of e-waste. The root cause that I'd like to see addressed is an industry that has incentives to churn out unrepairable throwaway electronics. But stuff like this that try to greenwash e-waste would make it less likely that the root cause is addressed, not more.

hinkley 1y ago

I’ve heard the rayon process, which can take (m)any natural fiber source and convert it into something vaguely like a synthetic silk, has quite a pollution footprint. The more you have to process the fibers to be like a niche or synthetic fiber the more it becomes greenwashing. Method Inc went through a phase where they made containers out of virgin materials because the overall ecological footprint was several times better than the best we could hope for plastic recycling, and that was before we found out plastic recycling is half sham. A lot of the trick was making thinner containers out of specialty materials that were lower volume than the waste stream from plastic recycling. Eventually they figured out a recyclable material that is as light as the disposable ones, so they get the best of both worlds. Unfortunately they only use those for hand soap refills.

xg15 1y ago

Yup, this was also what irked me in the rationale of this paper: Combatting e-waste is a good cause, but this is not what the paper is doing - it's alleviating some of the harmful side-effects of e-waste. The root cause that I'd like to see addressed is an industry that has incentives to churn out unrepairable throwaway electronics. But stuff like this that try to greenwash e-waste would make it less likely that the root cause is addressed, not more.