Charging in?

Posted on 11th Aug 2020 by andrewjmeekins87

Are Apple leading the charge of combating an e-waste problem, or are they just out to charge you more for less?

Since around the time that the WWDC 2020 keynote dropped on the internet in a post-covid technology landscape, a divisive rumour has circulated about the 2020 iPhones shipping without a charger in their box. On first look this appears to be yet another attempt by Apple to move people away from something that they are comfortable with. See the prior removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7, and going further back when they replaced the 30 pin connector with Lightning. Yet if this rumour turns out to be true, I believe that this move is not simply an attempt by Apple to make consumers buy more accessories at a bigger profit margin, but more of a necessity to help reduce the carbon footprint of each and every person around the globe that uses an iPhone. Or that’s how I like to think anyway.

Apple announced that it has a target of becoming carbon neutral across its entire business and manufacturing supply chain by 2030 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53485560). The company has goals in terms of its environmental impact, and I think it has been there for many years already. You only have to look at their product launches and keynotes to see this and they tend to dedicate a slide to the environmental impact of their new product.

A quick Google search showed that Apple sold 217.72 million iPhone units worldwide in 2018 (https://www.statista.com/statistics/276306/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-fiscal-year-2007/). That’s 217,720,000 power adapters and 217,720,000 Lightning cables that were also shipped. All of this is a single factor in the emerging and growing problem of e-waste. An author of a UN report has suggested that ‘the 50 million tonnes of e-waste generated every year will more than double to 110 million tonnes by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world.’ (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51385344). Therefore although the numbers of iPhone units sold, and therefore power adapters and cables that are going into consumers hands each year are staggering, this is merely the tip of the iceberg. For every power adapter and cable not used, there will be X amounts of other electronic items like screens, fridges, and vacuum cleaners for example which will also be joining the e-waste Everest.

The obvious argument against this move, and one that I’m sure Apple haters will sling in the direction of the company, is “you expect me to pay £1000 for a phone, but you won’t provide me the equipment to charge it?” A fair argument. You wouldn’t expect to buy a brand new car that came without wheels. But in the case of iPhones and other smartphones consumers have been buying these for many years now, and will doubtless have had many iterations of iPhones and other different phones. Across this timespan consumers would have accumulated numerous plugs and associated charging cables. Talking from my own experience, when I have upgraded a phone in the past I have continued to use the charging cable and power adapter that are a constant fixture on my bedside table. The new ones have remained in the box until something breaks.

I also think that if true, Apple may finally be on the verge of announcing a product like the fabled AirPower which never came to fruition. If this were the case then a product like AirPower where you were able to charge multiple devices wirelessly at the same time would solve the problem of having to ship chargers and cables in every box of every individual product. Although again, this could be a way of just making you upgrade to the next best thing. What would be good to see is universal charging across the devices, manufacturers and ecosystems in order to cut out a high volume of needless e-waste and make charging our multiple electronic devices that we carry constantly easier and more efficient.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/3/23/17155536/apple-airpower-wireless-charger-plux-indiegogo-crowdfunding-qi

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It's the end of the World as we knew it

Posted on 24th Mar 2020 by andrewjmeekins87

Strange, strange times indeed. What has happened to the world that we know and had become so accustomed to? It’s quite amazing how the things which we take for granted can just be changed in the blink of an eye. I can’t help but think it was only a matter of time before some world event or crisis like the Coronavirus came along to seriously disrupt the order of things.

I feel like the world was in an odd state of tension prior to this crisis coming to the fore. There were things like Brexit and the continuous collective worry about the declining state of the environment which seemed to seep into people’s consciousness in ways which I hadn’t experienced before. It seemed like there was no clear direction on where everything was headed. Everything seemed uncertain. And now, thanks to the Coronavirus, everything is a little bit more uncertain but at least it seems like the priorities have shifted.

Over the years this type of crisis has been predicted throughout all forms of media for a number of years. Take ’28 Days Later’, ‘How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse’, ‘Contagion’, ‘Death Stranding’ and ‘Twelve Monkeys’ to name but a few. I’m not saying we’re at that level of crisis but it’s difficult not to see the similarities and how something more savage and aggressive could seriously disrupt the way of the world overnight. And yet despite all of our exposure to this media we never seem to have truly prepared. This has been shown with the amount of panic buying which we have all seen examples of. Honestly does anyone need 75 toilet rolls at once? I mean how many hot Nando’s are they eating? If everyone was a bit more collective in the first place, I doubt we would have seen this level of panic. Everyone would have been more used to waiting their turn and only using the things which they really need at the time.

Back last year I started trying to be more minimal and discovered there was a whole minimalism movement going on out there. The aim being to try and ‘live a more meaningful life with less’ as said by The Minimalists. I’ve always been someone that has become a bit overwhelmed by clutter when it gets a bit out of control and found that these sorts of reactions to ‘things’ raise my stress levels. The reality is that we don’t need to let ourselves get to this point. As a society we are obsessed with ‘stuff’ and ‘things’ and upgrades , and all manner of other things which we think will enrich our lives. The reality is that in most circumstances these ‘things’ are empty and they satisfy us for a short amount of time before we want or think that we need the ‘next thing’.

Bearing in mind what is going on in the world at the moment, maybe it’s time for us all to take stock of the things in our life which we value and bring us joy. Maybe this crisis is an opportunity for us to make some changes to the way that we live and consume, so that we can exist a bit more meaningfully and collectively. ‘The Minimalists’ is a great insight into the way of living and is available on Netflix. Those guys also have a great podcast which covers a whole range of topics and how minimalism can be adapted or connected to that, for example with trauma or interior design. One thing I would recommend while we all have time at home is trying to do the 3-33 challenge; where for three months you are only allowed to wear 33 different items of clothing. The challenge does not include underwear or gym wear, but does include accessories and footwear. It’s a great way of going through all of your stuff and weeding out those items which you haven’t worn for a long time for whatever reason. There’s no need to throw all of your unwanted stuff away but just pack it away until it’s ready for the appropriate season. The challenge also means that the things you choose to keep on wearing will be things that you genuinely love and bring you joy in wearing them. It should help to make you feel good, and this is something that we all need at times like this. In fact it should be easy as none of us will be going out all you will need is your ‘slobs’.

So maybe in this time of apparent crisis we should all try and be a bit more minimal and focussed on the things that we know we want and the things which bring us joy.

https://www.theminimalists.com

Project 333 Book

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When plastic got drastic and being more green

Posted on 3rd Jul 20193rd Jul 2019 by andrewjmeekins87

Wednesday 3rd July 2019

So for my first post I thought I would share how I’ve recently really switched on and have started to wake up to the crisis of trying to preserve our planet. In the last few months things have really hit home to me about how bad things have got with regards to plastic waste. Thanks David Attenborough and Blue Planet 2! Let’s get real here, we can all do more to reduce our carbon footprint, our plastic waste and just generally be more green and eco friendly with the way that we live our lives. By now we have all seen the pictures of the islands of plastic waste out in the world’s oceans, and we are bombarded with news stories about how the world is warming up at a dangerous rate. Surely as the supposedly intelligent species on the planet it’s more than a choice to look after our world, it’s our overriding duty to pass it on to the next generation in the best state possible. So I have started to make some proper changes to my lifestyle to try and incorporate this and do my bit.

I recently watched the three part series titled “The War on Plastic” on the BBC and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone that hasn’t seen it. In watching that what was clear to me was just how much single use plastic we all have in our homes that we are basically unaware of, at least I was anyway. What was also clear was how easy it is for us all to reduce how much single use plastic we use, and the positive impact that can have, however small it may initially seem. I used to be of the mindset that why should I bother if no one else is? This is clearly the wrong attitude to have and is part of the problem that we are all contributing to. If everyone started to make small changes and really do their bit I’m confident we would start to see some positive impacts and maybe the problem sources (supermarkets) would actually start to take note.

So the changes which I have made are as follows:

Started cycling to work / using more public transport. Obviously this will only work if your place of work is within a reasonable distance. It saves money and get’s you fit and as a family we have been able to switch to one family car.

Switched energy supplier to Octopus energy, who claim that all of their energy comes from 100% renewable sources.

I bought a Chillys bottle to use rather than buying bottled water. Although they may look expensive initially, they’re extremely well built and keep your water ice cold for ages!

Purchased an rCup reusable coffee cup for coffee on the go. I’ve become slightly addicted to coffee (and the odd slice of cake) and let’s be frank the amount of coffee cups we use every day in life which are never recycled borders on being criminal. This cup so far seems really good and is also made from recycled plastic. Some coffee shops will also offer you a small discount for using a re-usable cup. It may seem like a small amount but multiply that by how many cups of coffee we buy in a year and it will be a worthwhile saving that you can use elsewhere.

Getting big food shops delivered. This reduces the amount of vehicles driving to and from supermarkets by having one vehicle deliver several customers’ shopping. With an almost two year old daughter it’s also a lot less stressful as I don’t have to constantly prevent her from touching and removing every single item from the shelves.

Switching to bamboo toothbrushes. Apparently toothbrushes can’t be recycled. I’ve also switched to replaceable heads by LiveCoco for my electric toothbrush as these claim to be recyclable if you send them off.

Getting milk delivered in reusable glass bottles.

I made my own household cleaner. It uses all natural ingredients and reduces the amount of spray bottles which I use which contain a lot of different plastic parts and are difficult to recycle.

Switch to LED lightbulbs throughout the house. These use a lot less energy than normal lightbulbs so in the long run will save you money on your energy bills.

Reduce use of single use wet wipes. In the recent BBC show “The War on Plastic” these types of wipes were found to contain a shockingly high amount of plastic. If you look around your house I reckon you will have a few types of these wipes around the home…baby wipes, toilet wipes, disinfectant wipes. Do we really need to use that many?

Obviously many of the points which I have listed above require some form of initial investment, however I think it’s time everyone wised up to the cost our 21st century lifestyles are having on the world around us.

Moving forwards I would like to continue to reduce the amount of single use plastics that I use at home. Where I do have to use household products for cleaning etc. I would like to switch to products which claim to originate from natural sources. I would also like to tackle the huge problem that we have of waste and single use plastics at work. I’ll keep you posted.

I’d love to hear what steps anyone else is taking to be more eco friendly in their lives.

Thanks for reading

Andrew

Finding Focus