Shopping for Ethernet jacks for an electronics project, I saw that some had embedded LEDs. Ah, yes, das blinkenlights! If you have a choice between one jack that has blinkenlights and one that does not, why would you ever choose the one that doesn’t have them? The costs are approximately the same. Well, well, think about whether you really need those blinkenlights for your particular application. Maybe there’s not a monetary cost, but what kinds of materials are LEDs made out of? Are they easy to recycle or challenging to recycle?
And the answer is… they are challenging to recycle. Gallium is a key component of many LEDs, but it is a notoriously difficult metal to mine since there are virtually no concentrated ore deposits of Gallium. Typically it comes as a side effect of zinc ore, bauxite ore, and coal mining operations.
20200315/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode
20200315/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode_physics#Materials
20200315/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium
So, if you don’t need LEDs, don’t ask for them. Sure, for computer-grade electronics, you do need indicator LEDs to show that the box is powered on and working, but once you’ve got enough, you don’t need to keep asking for more.