4 ms·

I took my anecdata straight to the shops, jumped onto the planned obsolescence bandwagon and bought the cheapest replacement I could find. Now I don't care if

I took my anecdata straight to the shops, jumped onto the planned obsolescence bandwagon and bought the cheapest replacement I could find. Now I don't care if they fail in 2 or 3 years because they're the same cost as the repair of an expensive model. And like you say, all appliances fail at some point, so I'll keep fueling this horrible new world we've built for ourselves and let the manufacturers fight it out over price.

k_sze 10y ago
Unless the world gets really good at recycling, this is also the guaranteed way to utterly trash the planet.
- PuffinBlue 10y ago
  Where do you live in the world that doesn't recycle white goods? It's literally the law in the UK that such goods have a method of being 'taken back' so they don't end up in landfill. I can't actually put any such goods in landfill if I tried, save for fly tipping. Even then the item would end up through the recycling chain.
  - liveoneggs 10y ago
    recycling in the US has to be profitable. Where I live we are no longer allowed to put glass into the recycling because it is no longer a profit center for the city. I should add that getting rid of big items can be especially difficult, but most appliance delivery includes taking away the old one to .. wherever they go.
    - ars 10y ago
      > to put glass into the recycling because it is no longer a profit center And because recycling it is one of the most pointless things you can do. It's sand, we have unlimited quantities of it, the planet is made of it.
      - philipkglass 10y ago
        The reason to recycle materials made of abundant elements (steel, aluminum, glass) is to conserve energy rather than ores. (Even the energy justification would be far less significant if world energy systems were mostly non-fossil.) Though city planners should do the arithmetic to double check that the collection system doesn't waste more resources than it saves.
        yuubi 10y ago
        Refining iron or aluminum from ore takes significant energy because you're basically un-rusting it, and that reaction naturally runs the other way; recycled metal gets to reuse that energy investment. I thought the glass process was basically melting sand and adding some trace additives, rather than forcing any chemical reactions uphill. Recycled glass also needs melted (if it doesn't, that's called a reusable bottle, not recycling).
      - yborg 10y ago
        This is incorrect. Making good glass is not trivial, glass has been recycled since Roman times. Even today, "Savings for other materials are lower but still substantial: about 70% for plastics, 60% for steel, 40% for paper and 30% for glass."
      - mnw21cam 10y ago
        The right kind of sand for making glass isn't found everywhere. In the UK, we have a particular problem that the only glass-suitable sand we have is not suitable for making clear glass, so we can only make coloured glass. All our clear glass is imported, mostly from France. However, most local recycling centres only have a "mixed colours" glass bin, so we can't even make our own recycled clear glass. And That's Why We Can't Have Nice Things (tm).
      - liveoneggs 10y ago
        please read https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/magazine/sand-mining-india-how-to-steal-a-river.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/magazine/sand-mining-indi...

k_sze 10y ago

Unless the world gets really good at recycling, this is also the guaranteed way to utterly trash the planet.

PuffinBlue 10y ago
Where do you live in the world that doesn't recycle white goods? It's literally the law in the UK that such goods have a method of being 'taken back' so they don't end up in landfill. I can't actually put any such goods in landfill if I tried, save for fly tipping. Even then the item would end up through the recycling chain.
- liveoneggs 10y ago
  recycling in the US has to be profitable. Where I live we are no longer allowed to put glass into the recycling because it is no longer a profit center for the city. I should add that getting rid of big items can be especially difficult, but most appliance delivery includes taking away the old one to .. wherever they go.
  - ars 10y ago
    > to put glass into the recycling because it is no longer a profit center And because recycling it is one of the most pointless things you can do. It's sand, we have unlimited quantities of it, the planet is made of it.
    - philipkglass 10y ago
      The reason to recycle materials made of abundant elements (steel, aluminum, glass) is to conserve energy rather than ores. (Even the energy justification would be far less significant if world energy systems were mostly non-fossil.) Though city planners should do the arithmetic to double check that the collection system doesn't waste more resources than it saves.
      - yuubi 10y ago
        Refining iron or aluminum from ore takes significant energy because you're basically un-rusting it, and that reaction naturally runs the other way; recycled metal gets to reuse that energy investment. I thought the glass process was basically melting sand and adding some trace additives, rather than forcing any chemical reactions uphill. Recycled glass also needs melted (if it doesn't, that's called a reusable bottle, not recycling).
    - yborg 10y ago
      This is incorrect. Making good glass is not trivial, glass has been recycled since Roman times. Even today, "Savings for other materials are lower but still substantial: about 70% for plastics, 60% for steel, 40% for paper and 30% for glass."
    - mnw21cam 10y ago
      The right kind of sand for making glass isn't found everywhere. In the UK, we have a particular problem that the only glass-suitable sand we have is not suitable for making clear glass, so we can only make coloured glass. All our clear glass is imported, mostly from France. However, most local recycling centres only have a "mixed colours" glass bin, so we can't even make our own recycled clear glass. And That's Why We Can't Have Nice Things (tm).
    - liveoneggs 10y ago
      please read https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/magazine/sand-mining-india-how-to-steal-a-river.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/magazine/sand-mining-indi...