The TU/e has a very special Christmas tree this year. The three-metre-high tree does not have any needles, but consisist of about one hundred circuit boards of some 600 grams each.
The tree is to draw attention to the sorting of waste. According to Martijn Sanders, one of the initiators, discarded mobile phones and laptops should be recycled instead of thrown away. "Electronic devices we no longer need are packed with raw materials that can be reused."
The circuit board Christmas tree may not be a real Christmas tree, but it does have Christmas lights and a tree topper. The so-called ‘E-Waste Christmas tree’ should make people more aware of the need to separate electronic waste.
The tree is meant to be a playful action. "We wanted to do something that would make people recycle their electronic waste or E-waste. As it is almost Christmas time, we ‘invented’ the Christmas tree," Sanders says.
Sanders does realize that this action is not going to change the world. "But if only a few people start looking for used devices, our goal will have been achieved. ‘
Source: Studio040
