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Where I live we have big disposal fees for tires, dishwashers, etc. Isn't that just the free market form of an incentive? Does Sweden not have garbage disposal

Where I live we have big disposal fees for tires, dishwashers, etc. Isn't that just the free market form of an incentive? Does Sweden not have garbage disposal fees?

kwhitefoot 10y ago
Do these fees result in more appliances being repaired?
- Create 10y ago
  Not directly. They are more often than not replaced by brand new AAAAA (or whatever) efficient products. Throwaway society stuff is generally dumped on Eastern European outlets (prime example are used cars, white goods, even clothes etc.).
- markmontymark 10y ago
  and do these fees result in more fly-tipping / illegal dumping?
zapu 10y ago
Where I live, there is a disposal fee for tires as well. It's about 2$ per tire, though ;) With tires, however, it's not like you buy a new one because you got bored with your old tire. You change them to maintain road safety. Recently I managed to repair an old iPod Video - it's about 25$ if you want to buy used, working one. I managed to order the parts from AliExpress for about 10$ total. I make enough money to buy myself a new music player if I wanted to, but the fact that there will be one less potentially toxic piece of garbage somewhere in a landfill feels really good.
- peatmoss 10y ago
  > Recently I managed to repair an old iPod Video Wow, I just went down the iFixit rabbit hole of seeing what that entails. My hat is off to you on repairing yours. Had I been you, I feel like I would have spent the $10 on parts, destroyed the iPod while trying to repair it, then still bought the replacement item--probably something new for $100+ that gets good marks for hackability, and then failed to make full use of it.
  - zapu 10y ago
    Thank you. I don't think I would be able to touch anything newer than that, honestly. Especially with current-generation devices, where everything is literally glued together, to a point where disassembling it and assembling back is next to impossible unless you have the specific tools (and skills) already. I have iPhone 5S and the battery is kind of giving up. Still going to try to find a shop (too bad it won't be Apple official one) where they'd do a battery replacement before buying a new one.
Pirate-of-SV 10y ago
> Does Sweden not have garbage disposal fees? We do but for the kind of garbage like tires and dishwashers the importing/producing/selling party is required to also take care of the costs related to the product after its life-cycle. Effectively this trickles down to the consumer of course so you've already paid for the disposal indirectly. http://www.swedishepa.se/Guidance/Guidance/Waste/Guidance-for-producers/Producers-electrical-and-electronic-equipment/ http://www.swedishepa.se/Guidance/Guidance/Waste/Guidance-fo...
polack 10y ago
No, there is no garbage disposal fees for private individuals (companies have to pay) when disposing those kind of things. I think the reasoning is that people would throw away environmentally damaging stuff in the normal trash or dump it in nature if there was a cost attached to leaving it at the "environment station" where they can properly take care of it.
ferongr 10y ago
If the disposal fees are punitive rather than set by the free market itself, then it's not a free market incentive.

Where I live we have big disposal fees for tires, dishwashers, etc. Isn't that just the free market form of an incentive? Does Sweden not have garbage disposal fees?

kwhitefoot 10y ago

Do these fees result in more appliances being repaired?

Create 10y ago
Not directly. They are more often than not replaced by brand new AAAAA (or whatever) efficient products. Throwaway society stuff is generally dumped on Eastern European outlets (prime example are used cars, white goods, even clothes etc.).
markmontymark 10y ago
and do these fees result in more fly-tipping / illegal dumping?

zapu 10y ago

Where I live, there is a disposal fee for tires as well. It's about 2$ per tire, though ;) With tires, however, it's not like you buy a new one because you got bored with your old tire. You change them to maintain road safety. Recently I managed to repair an old iPod Video - it's about 25$ if you want to buy used, working one. I managed to order the parts from AliExpress for about 10$ total. I make enough money to buy myself a new music player if I wanted to, but the fact that there will be one less potentially toxic piece of garbage somewhere in a landfill feels really good.

peatmoss 10y ago
> Recently I managed to repair an old iPod Video Wow, I just went down the iFixit rabbit hole of seeing what that entails. My hat is off to you on repairing yours. Had I been you, I feel like I would have spent the $10 on parts, destroyed the iPod while trying to repair it, then still bought the replacement item--probably something new for $100+ that gets good marks for hackability, and then failed to make full use of it.
- zapu 10y ago
  Thank you. I don't think I would be able to touch anything newer than that, honestly. Especially with current-generation devices, where everything is literally glued together, to a point where disassembling it and assembling back is next to impossible unless you have the specific tools (and skills) already. I have iPhone 5S and the battery is kind of giving up. Still going to try to find a shop (too bad it won't be Apple official one) where they'd do a battery replacement before buying a new one.

Pirate-of-SV 10y ago

> Does Sweden not have garbage disposal fees? We do but for the kind of garbage like tires and dishwashers the importing/producing/selling party is required to also take care of the costs related to the product after its life-cycle. Effectively this trickles down to the consumer of course so you've already paid for the disposal indirectly. http://www.swedishepa.se/Guidance/Guidance/Waste/Guidance-for-producers/Producers-electrical-and-electronic-equipment/ http://www.swedishepa.se/Guidance/Guidance/Waste/Guidance-fo...

polack 10y ago

No, there is no garbage disposal fees for private individuals (companies have to pay) when disposing those kind of things. I think the reasoning is that people would throw away environmentally damaging stuff in the normal trash or dump it in nature if there was a cost attached to leaving it at the "environment station" where they can properly take care of it.

ferongr 10y ago

If the disposal fees are punitive rather than set by the free market itself, then it's not a free market incentive.