The Fourth R: Reduce, Reuse, REPAIR, Recycle
If you’re like me you’ve got a lot of broken stuff in your basement or attic or storage area. Thinking about my basement, I can picture the train table with a missing leg, some chairs with busted seats, and–oh year–an old laptop computer. I keep telling myself I’m going to have those chair re-caned and I’ll try to give the train table away to someone handier than me who would reattach the leg. But the laptop computer. It has never even crossed my mind that anyone–let alone me–could or would fix it. But we could.
First a little context: Ewaste is a devastating problem. According to National Geographic reporting, 80% of our used and broken electronics are landfilled in this country (this despite bans that seek to keep toxins from leaching into soil and water supplies). What about the 20% that is “recycled”? Well most of this gets shipped overseas where individuals are burning it–that’s right burning it–or ripping it apart in order to recover materials like copper that have a resale value. Meanwhile dangerous pollutants like flame retardants, arsenic and mercury are released into the air, water and soil. And how are the individuals conducting these “recycling” operations protecting themselves from exposure? They aren’t. And many of them are just kids.
There are solutions. On the legislative/regulatory side, we could and should require manufacturers to take responsibility for the end-life of their products. This would surely go a long way towards moving away from a conventional design practice called planned obselecense. Instead of designing products to become obsolete (motivating consumers to buy newer, better, faster products), such laws would incent manufacturers to design products that will last a long time and are easier to fix when they break and upgrade as new technology develops.
But even with better design, things will still break. Someone needs to fix them and most of us don’t have a clue to go about doing this. Enter solution number 2: Ifixit is an exciting young company that is working to create comprehensive online repair manuals for every electronic device and, thus, enable people to fix their broken down electronics. In a video on the company’s website, co-founder, Kyle Wiens, describes the effort as a “wikipedia-like” one. In other words, Ifixit is aiming to create a continually updated encyclopedia for repairing electronics. Not only that: they provide troubleshooting guides and sell parts and tools. Pretty exciting if you ask me.
If you want to learn more about the ewaste problem and how Ifixit is working to solve it, visit their website and make sure to watch the video. It’s devastating and inspiring at the same time–in my opinion, just the right combination to motivate change.
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louisville auto repair…
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog….
Trackback by louisville auto repair — July 24, 2010 @ 11:14 am
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Comment by Team Roster — October 29, 2010 @ 10:04 pm