Renee St. Denis is "obsessed with trash". It's an attitude that helps when you're Director of Product Take Back and Recycling at HP.

The proper disposal of gadgets is a big problem, and now the industry is taking a good hard look at a product's lifecycle. In examining what happens to gadgets at the end their useful life, Denis made an interesting statement about the dynamic between manufacturers and consumers.

Ms. Denis explains, "We are influenced by what our customers want, but we realized that as a company this size it's important for us to influence and educate our customers about what the real impacts of these products are."

And David Conrad, Nokia's North American Head of Environment, spoke of how workers in his position used to measure success by non-events. Smart and ecologically sound choices in product manufacturing, it turns out, was a story few wanted to hear and so their efforts went unsung.

"You prevented the company from undertaking risk, so when they didn't actually fall on their faces because of some contanimation that you helped them avoid, it's a non-event," says Conrad.

Now, however, "the consumer is awakening to environmental issues" and beginning to pull, he says, which makes it an exciting time for the environmental folks on the payroll.

Sony's Director of Corporate Environment, Safety and Health, Douglas Smith, reported on the progress of their partnership with Waste Management. So far, the results look promising.

Since its launch in September "we've collected and processed a thousand tons," he states. According to the EPA calculator, this means that "2,391 tons of carbon dioxide were eliminated, which is the same as 589 cars being taken off the road, which is 321,000 gallons of gasoline saved."

Not too shabby...