Thursday, September 23rd 2021
Microsoft Makes Mouse out of Ocean Plastic, Claims Environmental Creds
We're all for recycling here at TPU and it's good to see that more and more big corporations are getting involved, but we can't help but feel that Microsoft is making bigger claims than it really is in this case. The company unveiled a new mouse at yesterday's Surface event called the Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse, however, the mouse is only made with 20 percent recycled plastic, although it does apparently come from plastic fished out of the oceans or other waterways. The issue here is that it only contains a tiny amount of recycled plastic, so it's hard to credit Microsoft for doing something real for the environment.
The Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse looks tacky as well, especially the scroll wheel, which is not only extremely slim by the looks of it, but also looks fiddly to use. It's a very basic two button mouse, although the scroll wheel is apparently also clickable and it can be tilted for vertical scrolling. The mouse connects via Bluetooth and supports Bluetooth 4.0 and 5, as well as Microsoft Swift Pair technology. It has a claimed wireless range of up to 10 meters, although Microsoft put in a note that it's closer to five meters in an office environment. It runs off of a AA battery which is meant to be good for up to 12 months of usage. The packaging is made out of wood and sugarcane fiber and doesn't include any plastic. Microsoft will also accept your old mouse for recycling if you get one of these and will apparently even pay for the postage. The Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse retails for $25.
Source:
Microsoft
The Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse looks tacky as well, especially the scroll wheel, which is not only extremely slim by the looks of it, but also looks fiddly to use. It's a very basic two button mouse, although the scroll wheel is apparently also clickable and it can be tilted for vertical scrolling. The mouse connects via Bluetooth and supports Bluetooth 4.0 and 5, as well as Microsoft Swift Pair technology. It has a claimed wireless range of up to 10 meters, although Microsoft put in a note that it's closer to five meters in an office environment. It runs off of a AA battery which is meant to be good for up to 12 months of usage. The packaging is made out of wood and sugarcane fiber and doesn't include any plastic. Microsoft will also accept your old mouse for recycling if you get one of these and will apparently even pay for the postage. The Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse retails for $25.
41 Comments on Microsoft Makes Mouse out of Ocean Plastic, Claims Environmental Creds
My guess is though, most consumers will pass on this as they have different needs and this will be rotting on shelves, and it most likely wasted energy from a coal powered plant in China to make them at that point.
Hopefully I am wrong though and they do sell well.
Its most certainly not environmentally friendly in any way shape or form. They re-used plastic, to make marketing. The rest is your usual wireless mouse...
Now watch them sell this in an uncolored, unrecycled fresh, transparent plastic blister :)Okay, fair enough. They put some thought into packaging too!Commerce will do and has done this to everything. We won't save ourselves being 'environmentally friendly' and consuming as we do regardless. That's just a massive load of cognitive dissonance at work.
A few years ago I read an eye opening book called "Techno-Fix: Why Technology Won't Save Us Or the Environment". Like with every book I read, I carefully examine the foot and endnotes (the sources) and dug further into the topic. Apparently, the argument made in the book isn't some fringe theory, but the realization that countless specialists and experts in the field of environmental sciences, industrial engineering, etc have concluded. Certain phenomenon like the "rebound effect" (how efficiency gains result in more resource and energy usage instead of less) have been thoroughly documented, and even studies in which groups of leading scientists have created models to see if global resource use can be brought to sustainable levels even when completely unrealistic levels of technological development and political will are assumed have resulted in failure (this is a really eye opening article if anyone is interested), demonstrate that technological gains are not the way out.
I realize it's hard to recommend reading a thick book to people, but an excellent documentary (professionally created and meticulously researched) was released a few years ago and is free on YouTube called "Planet of the Humans", check it out.
Back to the mouse, the better solution wouldn't be to use ocean plastic, but to produce far less plastic in the first place as a means of having not enter the ocean to begin with.... Yes recycling is good, but if we remember the slogan, reduce and reuse come before recycling, which, depending on the material, requires a large energy input and virgin materials regardless. This is just an attempt at green washing my Microsoft.
And I've been using mice with a cord eversince and haven't had to worry about or buy the first battery yet.
As for the rest..... Yeah - I'd pass on all that too.
I have a few wireless mice and KBs but they are livingroom, non-gaming use only.
I admit that I do like the design, that ugly logo on the side notwithstanding.NiMH?
Info on Ocean Plastic:
Why recycled ocean plastic is (often) a lie - YouTube
Or, hey, if MS wants to help clean the planet maybe dont make a huge chunk of computers prematurely obsolete with TPM 2.0. Just a thought.
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft are six companies I refuse to do business with. Any business.
TLS. Excellent article. Well written...
Best Regards,
Liquid Cool