[HN Gopher] Next generation LEDs are cheap and sustainable
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       Next generation LEDs are cheap and sustainable
        
       Author : geox
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2025-03-17 02:42 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (liu.se)
 (TXT) w3m dump (liu.se)
        
       | hulitu wrote:
       | > Next generation LEDs are cheap and sustainable
       | 
       | Sustainable ? Made from tropical forest trees ?
        
         | ForTheKidz wrote:
         | It seems their environmental impact was defined in terms of the
         | (environmental) cost of mining gold. "The greatest
         | environmental gain would instead be achieved by replacing gold
         | with copper, aluminium or nickel, while maintaining the small
         | amount of lead needed for the LED to function optimally."
        
       | ilove_banh_mi wrote:
       | "sustainable" was incorrectly translated from the Swedish
       | "miljovanliga" which instead means "environmentally-friendly"
       | ("sustainable" is "hallbar" in Swedish)
        
         | SoftTalker wrote:
         | It's a marketing term anyway, it doesn't mean anything.
        
       | NegativeLatency wrote:
       | Current LEDs are pretty cheap and comparatively sustainable (to
       | other lighting technology), but lots of LED based lighting
       | devices ship with:
       | 
       | - non replaceable batteries (flashlights)
       | 
       | - unreliable drivers that fail before the LED does, or kill the
       | LED by heat or excessive voltage
       | 
       | Happy to see people working on new LED tech but the downstream
       | effects of selling disposable stuff has to be much worse?
        
       | opwieurposiu wrote:
       | Is the gold in LEDs just in the bond wires?
        
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