Made By Monkeys

Sister publication Design News reports in its Lead Free Zone Blog that The Irish retailer, Boots, has the dubious honor of becoming the first company in the EU to prosecuted for violating the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which aims to divert electronic devices away from landfills:

"The retailer pleaded guilty to charges brought against the company by the UK Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Boots officials admitted the company failed to post a notice in their shops alerting customers that the prices of electronic products include a contribution to a producer recycling fund that ensures old electrical and electronic products are collected and recycled appropriately. Boots also failed to include a notice in a newspaper ad that a contribution is made to the fund from add-on’s to the retail price. Notices in shops and in advertising is required by WEEE."

EDN Editor Margery Conner brought the Solar Powered Kayak, helpfully outfitted with outriggers, to our attention as a candidate for most ludicrous green marketing claims. Or , you could jjust leave it at most ludicrous. She writes in her Powersource blog:

First it was the twinkie defense. Now it's the lead one? The NYT reports in its article Criminal Element that a new environmental theory of criminal behavior described in the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy suggests that the Clean Air Act (which got the lead out of gasoline) may have done more to fight crime than any other policy in U.S. history.

"Reyes [an economist at Amherst College] found that the rise and fall of lead-exposure rates seemed to match the arc of violent crime, but with a 20-year lag — just long enough for children exposed to the highest levels of lead in 1973 to reach their most violence-prone years in the early ’90s, when crime rates hit their peak....Putting the two together,” she says, “it seemed that this big change in people’s exposure to lead might have led to some big changes in behavior.”

It's a terrible twist of irony. The Chinese can't seem to keep the lead out, while everyone else may be doing too good of a job keeping it out. So reports the LA Times, in the article Lead phase-out may destroy electronics. The problem? Tin whiskers, like the ones on terminations, shown here..

Roger Platt gleefully spotted this heavily shaded, solar-powered parking meter in Bargates Car park, High Street, Burton upon Trent. He wonders if the fact that the area is famous for beer and brewing had something to do with the decision to locate it under a leafy canopy and notes the irony in chopping branches or cutting down trees to accommodate these environmentally-friendly devices.

The website Ecofriend also notes that the UK's notoriously gloomy weather has plagued the performance of these meters. Adding further to the woes -- Platt says he's noticed a number of these panels installed facing North, something he says "your average Boy Scout can figure out is not the best direction to point a solar panel."