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So for my mom's birthday later on this month, I plan on buying her a GPS system for her car. She's wanted one for awhile and so my dad and brother are chipping in so long as I do the research on it. I'm taking an environmental chemistry class where we have studied life-cycle assessment of electronic waste, so a big portion of my decision is coming out of how "green" the electronics are. I brought this up to my professor asking where I might be able to dig up resources and he suggested that I turn it into an extra credit project.
So now I'm giving a 15 minute presentation on the LCA of the top 3 manufacturers of GPS systems- Magellan, Garmin, and TomTom. I've found quite a bit of information on my own, but was wondering if anyone happened to know of sites that had actual scientists discussing the pros and cons of different GPS systems rather than the general greenwashing found on the company sites themselves? I KNOW they're out there, I just haven't been able to plug in the right key words yet!
If anyone can help me out or has already done this research before, I would be forever grateful. And of course, I will post my what I've found once I'm done!
Sorry, I can't help. The 'end cycle' of my GPS happened when someone smashed the window of my van to steal it...I actually think GPS can help with being green, because you don't have to print up a zillion pages of directions from MapQuest, and you can save the gas driving around being lost.
I know one of the company websites stated that "independent research" found that using their GPS system reduced mileage by 16% and time by 18%. Not that it cited that information or anything. :P Personally, I keep a notebook where I write out directions to everywhere (and walk anyway) so it doesn't really make a difference for me, but my mom tends to make wrong turns and it's nice that GPS's will automatically adjust.
What I'm really looking for is what happens once a system gets tossed. Like are there hazardous materials within it? Most companies won't own up to it so I'm looking for independent researchers who actually have cracked the babies open.
One of the disturbing things I've been finding is that in my state (Massachusetts), ALL mercury products are banned from being thrown away and must be disposed of at hazardous waste facilities. There is mercury in the screens of personal GPS systems but most end up in the trash anyway. That's pretty much explicitly stated on one of the company websites so it makes me wonder what ELSE is in the components of the GPS that is causing the bugs not to want to eat us after we die :P
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