IB Digital Society 4.3B Pollution and Waste Key Definitions

The total greenhouse gas emissions caused by an activity, product, or organization, usually expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent. For a digital system it spans manufacturing, operation, and disposal.

An economic model that keeps materials in use as long as possible through repair, reuse, refurbishment, and recycling, in contrast to a linear make-use-dispose model.

Waste and garbage of electronic devices.

Designing, making, using, and disposing of digital systems in ways that reduce their environmental impact, for example through energy-efficient hardware, longer device lifespans, and responsible recycling.

Designing a product with an artificially limited useful life so that it needs replacing sooner, for example through non-replaceable batteries, fragile parts, or software that stops being supported.

Reckless waste of substances that leads to negative environmental impacts.