EU IT commissariat has lightbulb moment over green IT

I've got

I've got a pink elephant, would any of you green fags like to buy it from me?

"Why Reding has taken responsibility ... is anyone's guess"

An excellent question, and anyone having been invited, anyone will now proceed.

It's about passing the buck, errr euros, around and feeling a bit guilty about it. After all, it's decades since the EC auditors last considered the accounts in any fit state to autograph. Which, after Enron, means the accounts are such a dog's breakfast that even the auditors cannot massage them into a set of numbers that look the slightest bit sensible to anyone. That's why the Goofy-goofy policies, (sorry, the f is next the d) and why the euros are going to pass around some more, tho mainly gravitate towards the black hole that is Brussels.

Interesting that you mention wax and chandlery. For that was precisely the first commercial exploitation of transfatty acids about 100 years ago, after which somehow they got into the food chain and people became diametrically challenged. But now that it is illegal in NY (etc?) for them to be in food, maybe they have a bright future after all.

Observe foot. Aim. Fire.

Why don't these bureaucrats look at the legislation they create in the round instead of the piecemeal approach they seem to adopt? The environmental credentials of IT were dealt a serious blow by RoHS because it effectively banned the use of lead in electronics.

As we all know lead is highly toxic which we can easily see by the fact that anyone who drinks water that has been through a lead pipe drops dead within seconds.

Err... hang on... Oh, that's right, lead is only mildly toxic but the Eurocrats saw fit to ban it anyway in a ridiculous case of focusing on minor threats instead things that might actually improve people's lives. The separate WEEE regulations covered what they were actually concerned about anyway, namely the proper disposal of the kit at the end of its life.

To return to the point, why was lead added to electronics (in particular solder) in the first place? To prevent the formation of tin whiskers that form when pure tin soldered joints are used. These are hair-like metal filaments that spontaneously grow from any piece of tin over a period of a couple of years. If two of these filaments cross then poof! Short circuit and new hardware needed.

So thanks to European legislation new computer hardware cannot be expected to last as long as it used to. That means kit needs replacing more often, which means more raw materials, more energy used in manufacturing and distributing that kit, and all in all it is generally a bad idea for the environment.

EU free resources

>>Perhaps there is a wax mountain lying around that could be used to reignite the European chandlery industry as well.<<

Yes, try looking in G. Brown's ears !! He can't seem to listen very well no matter who tells him anything !! You can start mining from one side and exit ther other. There's nothing to impede your progress !!

Solder

I don't think that the addition of lead to tin to form solder is necessarily to prevent the formation of tin whiskers. The main reason is ro reduce the melting point, which the eutectic 60/40 mixture does quite effectively. A eutectic mixture also hardens all at once, whereas plumbers solder, with a higher lead content, has a pasty phase before full solidification. handy for the wiped pipe joints of old. There are eutectics which solidify at lower temperatures. Even lower than the boiling point of water, but they have other less desirable qualities. Like cost.