Abstract

While the Internet of Things help to reduce the global carbon dioxide emissions through improved monitoring and control it at the same time have negative impact on the environment through increased production of e-waste. Adding intelligence into the devices that previously had none tends to shorten their lifetime turning products that might last 15 years into ones that must be replaced every five years which makes the problem worse. There is also alarming number of small connected devices such as trackers, jewelry, or wearables that are designed to fail once the battery dies. In order to reduce the ever-growing e-waste and to improve the operation time of the devices, narrowband low-carrier frequency technology should be revisited, and new communication protocols develop that support them. The high manufacturing tolerances of these devices opens the possibility to produce them from recyclable and biodegradable materials.