A bonus rant

[firecat]

Via the Risks Digest:

Consumers' penchant for constant upgrades -- new cell phones, a sleeker laptop -- is causing havoc in the environment, and with technology products now accounting for as much as 40% of the lead in U.S. landfills, e-waste has become one of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. solid waste stream.

Consumers' penchant? I'm for the most part perfectly happy with my existing technology, but when I need to repair it, parts are often simply not available or they cost more than a new one.

For example, my cell phone's battery isn't holding a charge as long as it used to. So I went to my cell phone provider to see how much a new battery would cost. A new battery costs twice as much as a new phone (which comes with a new battery) would cost - not another phone of the same model as mine, but next model up.

With that kind of pricing, am I going to replace just the battery, thus saving a few square inches of space in the landfill? No, of course not! I'm going to replace the whole phone!

As a consumer, I resent being blamed for the behavior of technology companies that make repairing rather than replacing or upgrading all but impossible.

Comments

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

Another good example: every few years most people with computers pretty much have to upgrade, even though the computer may work fine -- if you want to use the most current software, it just won't work on older machines. It drives me nuts. Luckily for me, I don't generally need the latest software, so I'm usually the one in our household with the 4-year-old machine while Ray has the newer one so he can run the latest mondo-wow-wow game. I shudder to think how much landfill space is taken up just because software has become too bloated and inefficient.