Eco-friendly pedals...?

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AntonHunterAntonHunter Frets: 916
edited July 2021 in FX
All this chat about scarcity of raw materials for chips and everything has got me thinking. Anyone know what the ecological impact of our profession/hobby/habit is in terms of what goes into making our gear? And is there anyone making the guitar gear equivalent of the Fairphone?

Maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick with the chip shortage, maybe it's Covid affecting production rather than the resources running out, but yeah, just thinking out loud really. Is it time to start hoarding pedals? 'cos I'm down with that...
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Comments

  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    The chip shortage has got nothing to do with scarcity of raw materials.
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  • mgawmgaw Frets: 5239
    The chip shortage has got nothing to do with scarcity of raw materials.
    Couldn't agree more loads of potatoes in Sainsburys today
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  • AntonHunterAntonHunter Frets: 916
    The chip shortage has got nothing to do with scarcity of raw materials.
    Aha, thanks. I was struggling to follow the ins and outs of it.
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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    Aren't electronic chips mostly made of silica which I think is one of the most abundant materials on Earth?
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  • I doubt pedals have a serious environmental impact - it’s a fairly niche hobby with a strong tendency towards buying vintage gear. 

    Some of the cheap plastic pedals aren’t great - they’re both more likely to break, and less likely to break down. Although epoxy might fix most issues

    Off the top of my head: buy second hand, avoid buying for the sake of buying, avoid stuff that will break before you’re done with it, try to repair bust stuff. Could be wrong on all of that though - often these things are more complex than one initially anticipates 
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    At a guess I would expect guitar making to be significantly worse for the planet than pedals, not least because most are partly or largely made from tropical hardwoods.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • AntonHunterAntonHunter Frets: 916
    All good points!
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  • It is an interesting point, but the big impacts we have I would guess is shipping raw materials, wastage and shipping products.

    ICBM said:
    At a guess I would expect guitar making to be significantly worse for the planet than pedals, not least because most are partly or largely made from tropical hardwoods.
    Which is even more ridiculous as some builders on this forum have mentioned other more renewable species that make fine instruments. My pine strat is excellent - actually the best strat I've played - and I imagine it has a smaller ecological cost to the planet for it. The fingerboard? Ebony. Not so great, probably. 
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  • ColsCols Frets: 6953
    Semiconductor production uses vast quantities of water.  One of the reasons we have a global supply issue for computer chips is because there was drought in Taiwan, which makes most of the world’s supply.  At one point their biggest chip manufacturer was having to bring water to the factory in tanker trucks.

    Martin, Taylor, Yamaha, Fender, PRS and Gibson are all active in ensuring sustainable sourcing of tonewoods and, in some cases,  using different woods entirely for sustainability reasons.

    I believe Gibson even tried to spin their Richlite fretboards as “sustainable alternative”, rather than “we have to use this because the Feds seized our illegally imported ebony”.

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  • It's not something I ever really think about tbh. Nothing I do is eco-friendly. Except pussy eating. That's very eco-friendly.

    Bye!

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  • AntonHunterAntonHunter Frets: 916
    Cols said:
    Semiconductor production uses vast quantities of water.  One of the reasons we have a global supply issue for computer chips is because there was drought in Taiwan, which makes most of the world’s supply.  At one point their biggest chip manufacturer was having to bring water to the factory in tanker trucks.

    Martin, Taylor, Yamaha, Fender, PRS and Gibson are all active in ensuring sustainable sourcing of tonewoods and, in some cases,  using different woods entirely for sustainability reasons.

    I believe Gibson even tried to spin their Richlite fretboards as “sustainable alternative”, rather than “we have to use this because the Feds seized our illegally imported ebony”.

    That's some interesting insight, thanks Cols.
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    The trouble with IC's is there's relatively few people making them. Those that do, TMC for example make them for a lot of different industries, cars, phones, laptops etc. One of the problems was some OEM's like car manufacturer's scaled down their chip orders over lockdown because they weren't selling cars. Then when the market picked up they expected TMC to continue at the same pace as before but IC manufacturers don't leave chip production lines idle, they got on and rejigged them for other purposes that were selling. Then the water shortage and new regs about how much water they can use didn't help. 

    I up cycle broken electronics all the time. It's a bit of a bind sometimes because you can never throw anything away ...there's always some part of it that will be good for something else. A laptop with a broken screen can have the board rehoused in a small box and make a dumb TV smart. The cell's from the battery can be reused to refurb a drill battery. An old virgin media router transformer can be converted into a low voltage  AC supply for pedals that need AC. 

    You can make something like a Tubescreamer out of very common bits of broken gear. . I did a little vid years ago to prove that  point and made one mainly from a broken computer speaker with a few extra bits nicked from other junk in my workshop and an enclosure nicked form my wife's dressing table. 



    Sadly it's not so easy to recycle modern SMD components. You can do it and I do it on laptop boards all the time but that's generally to repair and because you can't just buy these components anywhere, you need donar boards to nick bits off. Eventually everything will be built like this but in the mean time you can save a lot of money and have a lot of fun upcycling electronics 

    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • AntonHunterAntonHunter Frets: 916
    That is all kinds of awesome @Danny1969. Thanks for sharing. Post your address and I'm sure we can all send you our random draws full of obsolete chargers we're hanging onto 'just in case'...
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  • AntonHunterAntonHunter Frets: 916
    Reviving this thread a bit as I spotted this in my inbox today:

    https://godlyke.com/collections/power-all-eco-dapter

    Not a pedal, and only carbon-neutral because they're offsetting it, but still.


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  • joetelejoetele Frets: 947
    Quit whinin', ya big hippy. 
    MUSIC: Pale Blurs
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  • AntonHunterAntonHunter Frets: 916
    joetele said:
    Quit whinin', ya big hippy. 
    Say that to my face boy!

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  • joetelejoetele Frets: 947
    joetele said:
    Quit whinin', ya big hippy. 
    Say that to my face boy!

    I would if I could be bothered to go up north. 
    MUSIC: Pale Blurs
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  • GreatapeGreatape Frets: 3492
    Reviving this thread a bit as I spotted this in my inbox today:

    https://godlyke.com/collections/power-all-eco-dapter

    Not a pedal, and only carbon-neutral because they're offsetting it, but still.


    Does it buzz less than a 1spot? 

    If so, I'm a-savin' the planet asap 
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  • SporkySporky Frets: 27590
    I'm inclined to think that if you want a pedal to be reasonably eco-friendly it should be reliable so it has a long lifespan, and mostly made with through-hole components so it's easier to replace something that fails.
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
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