[Themaintainers] Our new data visualization: The Electronic Waste Graveyard

[Tirpak, Mark]

Dear Nathan,

Thank you for this work! Not to detract from the key message of the "graveyard," I hope you'll consider posting some additional information about some of the Amazon Kindle devices that you list — to hopefully help discourage e-waste.

To consider, I still use one of the RIP devices listed, a Kindle DX Graphite (almost $500 new, now 16 years old), as an e-reader, albeit shaking my fist a bit at Amazon for pulling support (which they did more or less a few years ago). I'm not alone in this, as different enthusiasts of older Kindles post on YouTube, etc. about how they work around Amazon's "sunsetting" of these devices and also the benefits of these older devices.

As noted in the US PIRG article, content can't be loaded directly from Amazon or borrowed from most libraries (Libby app, etc.) that demand more dynamic e-book software.

However, I can and do load content regularly from Project Gutenberg (www.projectgutenberg.org<http://www.projectgutenberg.org/>) — the only source that I can find for MOBI / "older Kindle" ebook files (although YouTube comments hint towards other sources);  I load these files with a USB cord after downloading them to my computer and using the open-source library management software Calibre (https://calibre-ebook.com/). I also load some PDFs to the old Kindle using  this method.

I did have to replace the internal battery of my Kindle DX once (not bad for a 16 year old device), which was possible for me thanks to tutorials shared on YouTube and batteries and tools available via eBay and maybe even Amazon.

The cost of used older Kindles like the DX  seem to have gone up significantly in recent years as more people have sought out "distraction-free" e-readers and also repairable items. Being cut off from Amazon also means no ads and no tracking of reading. The old Kindles are incredibly durable, repairable (at least a battery swap is possible by a novice like me) and have accessibility features that newer models skip — designated page turn buttons (no touch screen, which some say leads to clearer text) and built in text-to-voice (highly robotic, based on 2010s tech) that's not internet dependent. The DX's large e-ink screen I believe is bigger than any  now on the market (it was designed to be a textbook replacement apparently), and is not so expensive used, although the prices seem to be going up.

Just to say that older Kindles don't seem to be completely dead yet — and for some people, they have distinct advantages over newer models. Regardless, thanks for your work for the public interest!

Best regards,
Mark

PS — here's one of the many videos that I've noticed highlighting the utility of older Kindles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6yTz97ycFU

---

Mark Tirpak, PhD (University of Technology, Sydney), MSCRP (University of Texas at Austin)

Adjunct / Affiliated Faculty
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA)
Virginia Tech



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________________________________
From: Themaintainers <themaintainers-bounces at lists.stevens.edu> on behalf of Nathan Proctor <nproctor at pirg.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2026 4:27 PM
To: themaintainers <themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
Subject: [Themaintainers] Our new data visualization: The Electronic Waste Graveyard

You don't often get email from nproctor at pirg.org. Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification>
Hello!

One of the themes we have been exploring over the last year with the Maintainers is the increasing rise of software obsolescence and its impact on waste, security and society. Many of us engaged around the End of Windows 10, for example. I wanted to share a new tool my organization has launched this week, the Electronic Waste Graveyard -- a data visualization of all the recent cloud locked, bricked or otherwise software obsolete hardware.

https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/electronic-waste-graveyard/

We now estimate 1.7 billion pounds of electronic waste has been created by expired software and canceled cloud services since 2014.

Yikes!

--
Nathan Proctor
Senior Director, U.S. PIRG Campaign for the Right to Repair
O: (857) 413-2534
C: (203) 522-3860

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