Dealing With E-waste (2)

Possible e-waste solutions
Owners can prolong the life of their gadgets by upgrading less frequently and by repairing the devices instead of replacing them. Owners might also choose to sell their old gadgets to a company like Gazelle that prepares them for resale overseas. That way, owners can earn money while preventing these devices from ending  up in a garbage dump. Similarly, owners could send their used electronics to Atteor, a company that specializes in extracting the valuable metals in used gadgets.

Some waste-management experts are promoting green chemistry. Green chemistry attempts to stop e-waste by designing safer chemicals to replace the hazardous ones currently used in making electronic products.

And green chemistry aims to design products that degrade easily, as opposed to plastic ones that take hundreds of years to break down.

Another creative solution to the e-waste problem has been found in Togo, West Africa, where members of WoeLab built a 3-D printer from scraps of e-waste. And in Ghana, a company called FairPhone is making phones using recycled materials. While such creative efforts won't completely solve the e-waste problem, they do offer a ray of hope.

Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: Language Purists and Realists (語言的純粹主義者與現實主義者)
美國的小學老師, 最愛糾正小朋友的一件事,
就是當小朋友問:
Can I go to the bathroom?
老師會反問:
I don't know. Can you?
因為嚴格的來說, 小朋友應該說:
May I go to the bathroom?

英文文法來說:
Can I ....是指我有沒有這個能力,
但一般人不會在乎正確的用法,
因為事實是語言不斷的在改變演化,
語言的 purist 力求文法語言的正確使用,
但是 realist 現實主義者, 注重可以溝通可以使用即可

Grammar Gym
And green chemistry aims to design products that degrade easily, as opposed to plastic ones that take hundreds of years to break down.

[Subject] aims to..., as opposed to...

- Our aim is to complete this project on our own in one month, as opposed to sending it out to another company and waiting two months for them to finish.
- The church's aim is to provide a safe place for kids to go to after school, as opposed to being out in the streets where it's dangerous.

Language Lab
prolong v.
to deliberately make something such as a feeling or activity last longer [= lengthen]:
- We decided to prolong our stay in Paris to enjoy the city a bit more.
- The canned food was specially processed to prolong its shelf life.

hazardous adj.
dangerous
- Passive smoking is hazardous to people's health, so it's now illegal to smoke indoors.
- Slippery roads and darkness are hazardous for driving.
hazard n.
something that may be dangerous, or cause accidents or problems
- Being overweight is a health hazard.

degrade v.
to treat someone without respect and make them lose respect for themselves:
- Jacob feels it is degrading to tell lies.
if a substance, chemical etc degrades, or if something degrades it, it changes to a simpler form
- This kind of packaging degrades easily in soil.

scrap n.
a small piece of paper, cloth etc
- I wrote down the phone number on a scrap of paper.
- The quilt was made from scraps of cloth I collected from my friends.
a small amount of information, truth etc
- I need every scrap of information to finish my news report.

ray of hope
something that provides a small amount of hope or happiness in a difficult situation

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