diff --git a/src/pages/en/fabcity/news/elektroschrott.mdx b/src/pages/en/fabcity/news/elektroschrott.mdx new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..60e15bb78dcaab048eb758a59eda9ece2a828ae6 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/pages/en/fabcity/news/elektroschrott.mdx @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +--- +layout: "@layouts/ArticleLayout.astro" +title: Beuys Meets Electronic Waste +order: 225 +subtitle: Experimental Recycling Lab +headerImage: /images/news/elektroschrott/eschrott_2.jpeg +headerImageAlt: Electronic trash gallery at the Pop-Up Circular Hub +teaser: 'In Hamburg alone, 15,000 tons of electronic waste are collected every year - what should we do with it?' +author: Niels Boeing +type: article +--- + +In Hamburg alone, 15,000 tons of electronic waste are collected every year. Cell phones, cables, televisions, other electronic devices. And much of it is still lying around in homes, in drawers and storerooms. What should we do with it? + +The recycling of electronic waste is still a rather dark chapter in waste disposal. Sure, there are specialized companies that can industrially recover all the valuable materials in the circuit boards. But there is still an illegal export of e-waste to Africa and Asia. + +If Hamburg wants to be a comprehensive circular economy by 2025, it must recycle its own e-waste. The conditions for this are not yet in place. We wanted to put it to the test and see what we have lying around and what we can do with it. + +## Turning Trash Into Art + +We collected e-waste from five households, which we sorted first: Cables, power supply units, large appliances, cell phones, smartphones and more. + +We then took apart an old Motorola smartphone, for example. There aren't many components, but some of them are stuck in the device. It was difficult to take it apart and sort it into recyclable materials. Especially as it's not obvious at first glance what materials you're dealing with. + +<ImageGallery + fullBleed + files={[ + { + img: "/images/slider/elektroschrott/1.jpg", + caption: "Old phones and a remote", + subCaption: "Fab City Hamburg e.V.", + }, + { + img: "/images/slider/elektroschrott/2.jpg", + caption: "Cable confusion", + subCaption: "Fab City Hamburg e.V.", + }, + { + img: "/images/slider/elektroschrott/3.jpg", + caption: "Vacuum cleaner", + subCaption: "Fab City Hamburg e.V.", + }, + { + img: "/images/slider/elektroschrott/4.jpg", + caption: "Mice, deconstructed", + subCaption: "Fab City Hamburg e.V.", + }, + { + img: "/images/slider/elektroschrott/5.jpg", + caption: "This used to be a Motorola. And now?", + subCaption: "Fab City Hamburg e.V.", + }, + { + img: "/images/slider/elektroschrott/6.jpg", + caption: "Copper, Baby!", + subCaption: "Fab City Hamburg e.V.", + }, + { + img: "/images/slider/elektroschrott/7.jpg", + caption: "Is the system relevant?", + subCaption: "Fab City Hamburg e.V.", + }, + { + img: "/images/slider/elektroschrott/8.jpg", + caption: "Copper and plastics", + subCaption: "Fab City Hamburg e.V.", + } + ]} +/> + +Power supply units from Apple proved to be quite unpleasant. They are known to break quite quickly. Even the attempt to open the glued housing was laborious. In the end, brute force with a hammer and screwdriver was the only option. + +Soldering all the components apart would take forever. Especially as many of the components are so small that they are not easy to work on with a normal soldering iron. + +We tried something different, namely, in the spirit of Joseph Beuys, to repurpose parts and - perhaps - turn them into artistic objects. This one, for example, is a braid of copper cables, woven in the same way as textile fibers, but individually by hand. + + + +This is a figure made of antennas and other small parts. We gave it the name @, pronounced as "Ed". + + + +We will repeat this e-waste event to better understand where we as residents of this city can actually contribute to the recycling of e-waste.