Mar 11 2008

Killing Trees vs Manufacturing Toxins from Chip

Published by John Blyler at 6:19 pm under The Profession

So which approach leaves a bigger ecological (system-wide) footprint: manufacturing print from trees or manufacturing on-line publishing devices from transistors, such as web-based Internet clients (laptops, smartphones, etc). Anyone who has worked in the wafer fab business will understand why I ask the question. Nasty business.
Is anyone aware of any studies?

2 Responses to “Killing Trees vs Manufacturing Toxins from Chip”

  1. # Lou Coveyon 11 Mar 2008 at 6:46 pm

    Here’s a report from the state of California that outlines the semiconductor industries efforts to ameliorate toxic waste.

    http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/upload/SemiconductorReport-2.pdf

    These were the companies covered:

    • Advanced Micro Devices
    • Agilent
    • Analog Devices
    • Fairchild Imaging
    • Intel
    • Jazz Semiconductor
    • Micrel
    • Microsemi
    • NEC
    • Novellus Systems
    • Perkin Elmer
    • Shell Solar
    • Sipex
    • Skyworks
    • Spectrolab
    • Vitesse

    Each company was responsible for a minimum 13 tons of toxic waste production each year. Now add that up and put it into the perspective that flat panel screens product the same waste as semiconductors.

    And this is just California.

  2. # John Blyleron 12 Mar 2008 at 10:41 am

    Good bit of research, Lou. Thx! I’ll take a closer look, once my head stops spinning from the flu.

    I’m querying a few book publishers I know to get their thoughts. Will publish the results in our new “Green Electronic System” magazine, due out in early June.

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