Yesterday I spent almost the whole day to sort out my computer box. I used to work as a system administrator for some time, so there are plenty of digital ‘leftovers’: adapters, cables, chargers, batteries, converters, transformers, even more cables and hubs of all sorts.
It is precious high tech trash. Some of these cables and especially adapters once cost a huge amount of money. I found one old Mac PowerBook to SCSI cable that once cost over €100. Now it’s simply high tech trash.
But it’s mostly poisonous trash. Some countries have laws against disposing it all as usual. Most cables and plugs contain precious metals - so it should be recycled.
But most of all: these cables and plugs should be designed to be more universal.
The USB plug and cable system for example was meant to be universal - just as the name says. But already USB is no longer just one plug but four different sizes. Well done computer industry!
And why can we have ONE charger for all those small gadgets like cell phones, cameras and mp3 players?
