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If people would only stop buying stuff they don't need, but that seems to be the driving force of the modern consumer society. The norm where I live seems to b
by mclemme 12y ago
If people would only stop buying stuff they don't need, but that seems to be the driving force of the modern consumer society.
The norm where I live seems to be to purchase new computers, smartphones, etc. every 6-24 months (phones more often compared to computers). Whereas the more frugal people I know mostly purchase new electronics when the old item has truly and utterly died without the possibility of repair.
But assuming that will not change in the near future it seems that selling refurbished electronics at cheaper prices as well as improving the manufacturing process to use less toxic materials, could help quite a bit.
An example of refurbished electronics I saw in the news the other day here in Denmark is http://www.brugteiphones.dk/ http://www.brugteiphones.dk/ buying up old broken iphones, repairing and selling them, they seem to be growing pretty fast.
- danieldk 12y agoThe norm where I live seems to be to purchase new computers, smartphones, etc. every 6-24 months (phones more often compared to computers). While a computer can last a decade for most consumers, especially with the long support cycles of Windows and/or Linux' support for low-end hardware, phones are pretty much obsolete in no time: they don't get security updates, apps become unbearable (since their developers have the latest & greatest), etc. Planned obsolescence. This is one of the reasons that I argue that e.g. the EU should intervene. Phone manufactures and/or carriers should at the very least provide security updates for a reasonable period. Another option would be to make unlocked boot loaders mandatory, so that consumers can easily replace firmware.