Sustainable technology

The Wall Street Journal (June 7) -- The technological advances that replaced typewriters with personal computers, flip phones with smartphones and clunky TVs with flat-screen displays also spawned the consumer expectation that today’s cutting-edge product will become obsolete in a few years. The constant churn of new devices has contributed to an increase in electronic waste, some of which ends up in developing nations where local residents must deal with the health and environmental risks. “Many of the environmental problems are made during the design process,” says William Bullock, a professor of industrial design and a faculty member at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center at Illinois.