It Ain't Easy Being a 'Green' Gadget

Brilliant column over on Datamaion by the elegant one, Mike Elgan, on so-called "green" gadgets, and whether the reality lives up to the hype.

Elgan feels the same way I do. I'm pro-environment and pro-product improvement, but I'm getting tired of all the B.S. surrounding supposedly "green" products.

Here are some of the examples he cites of "greenwashing:"

Recently, there has been a sudden surge in "green" consumer electronics products. But is the surge working?

• A Chinese company called Hoshino announced this week a bio-degradable USB disk. The external plastic is a corn-based polylactide. (I haven't conducted lab tests, so I don't know if it actually *tastes* like corn.)
• Costco is selling another "green" flash drive: The ATP 8GB EarthDrive, which the manufacturer claims is made using "a maximum amount of bio-recycled material." (How much is "a maximum amount"?)
•  Dell recently unveiled its stylish Studio Desktop, which Dell calls its "greenest, most power-efficient consumer desktop." The PCs, which come with a choice of fruity colored sleeves or even a real bamboo sleeve -- have 75% less paper documentation and use 70% less power than a "typical desktop." (They also appear to have 70% less room for expansion.)

Elgan makes two excellent points toward the end of the piece. 1) All consumer electronic devices are bad for the environment. 2) If you really want to help Mother Earth, "then buy consumer electronics that are super high-end and built to last," Elgan writes.

If I can go off topic for a minute and channel Andy Rooney, you know what bugs me about little USB drives? Sure, they're small. Sure, they can fit on your key chain if you need your data close by while you drive. What bugs me is that you never know what's on a little USB drive without plugging it in (or writing extremely small). I've got five on my desk and I have no idea which one contains my invoice master list.

Remember Zip drives, or writeable CDs, or for God's sake floppy disks, where you could write the names of the files on the outside of the disk for all the world to see? Those were the days.

Maybe someone out there has solved this somehow and I haven't heard about it. If so, someone drop me a line.