[LINK] NBN and Batteries

[Paul Brooks]

On 23/02/2011 2:15 PM, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> Paul writes,
>
>> here we are more likely to get an enquiry afterwards to declare
>> after-the-fact that the orders to 'down the Internet' were a violation
>> of something.
>
> Sensible comments Paul, both here and also in "Computerworld" this arvo:
Thankyou Stephen.

On 23/02/2011 2:35 PM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> Personally, I think the Greens would do better to tackle battery 
> disposal / recycling across-the-board, rather than grabbing  passing 
> high-profile issue (the NBN) and tacking "battery disposal" on the end. 
> "Pin the tail on the donkey" is a second-rate political strategy; cheap 
> opportunism, IMO.
>
> Did some quick Googling on this; a common figure for landfill is 8,000 
> *tonnes* of batteries each year - and that datum is 8 years old (from 
> the ABS). It's probably more now.
>
> Let's get the calculating envelope:

I think we'll need something more sophisticated than this Richard, which can
distinguish between big heavy lead-acid batteries used in vehicles (and the really
really big heavy hernia-inducing ones in trucks, trains, buses, etc), and the smaller
lighter ones in phone handsets and now the NBN terminals, likely to be lithium-ion or
even lithium-polymer if they can work out how to keep the rate of spontaneous meltdown
to an acceptably low rate.

Battery recycling and disposal is a big issue, but general recycling/disposal of
electronic goods is a much bigger issue - andwhen that;'s sorte, it should encompass
batteries as a subset within the overall scheme.

Paul.