| What happened: The U.S. PIRG Education Fund reports that heightened sales of Chromebooks during the pandemic have led to a buildup of electronic waste as the budget laptops begin to expire in their short lifespans. Details: From 2019 to 2020, sales of Chromebooks rose 87% as U.S. schools purchased many Chromebooks to aid in remote learning. Three years later, the devices are failing as Google no longer provides updates after the software "expires" several years after a laptop is certified. Manufacturers often lack the necessary parts for costly replacements, resulting in piles of e-waste at many schools, PIRG says.
What the numbers say: The non-profit estimates that the 31 million Chromebooks sold during 2020 contributed to an estimated 9 million tons of CO2 emissions. Doubling the lifespan of the laptops sold in 2020 would be equal to removing 900,000 cars from the road, PIRG says, and could save U.S. taxpayers $1.8B across 48 million K-12 students.
Relevance: To help slow down this so-called "Chromebook churn," the lobby group urges Google to do away with its Automatic Update Expiration system, though Google says it now provides eight years of automatic updates, up from five years. PIRG also recommends that OEM partners produce at least 10% overstock of replacement parts for Chromebooks, while it says should have standardized parts across manufacturers and models. |
