[HN Gopher] Nearly half a billion small tech items thrown away
___________________________________________________________________
Nearly half a billion small tech items thrown away
Author : onemoresoop
Score : 18 points
Date : 2023-10-12 19:55 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| onemoresoop wrote:
| Is it recycling that needs to be implemented or go ever deeper at
| the source and crack down on disposable, unfixable, ephemeral
| gadgets? Seems to be more of a greed rush problem, fix it in the
| future and make more money type of issue at the root of it.
| Recycling isn't necessarily not useful but attacking the wrong
| root cause of e-waste.
| avgcorrection wrote:
| Passing off symptoms and branch effects as root causes is what
| the media does on many topics.
| hx8 wrote:
| The manufacturer needs to have a higher level of responsibility
| for proper disposal. I can imagine a world where computer
| vision scans trash and charges manufacturers a cost for proper
| disposal. End users could get rewarded with coupons or rebates
| if they prove proper disposal. Perhaps the same scanning
| technology can check the trash at time of pickup and offer
| discounts to customers that properly sort their recycling.
| tivert wrote:
| > Is it recycling that needs to be implemented or go ever
| deeper at the source and crack down on disposable, unfixable,
| ephemeral gadgets?
|
| IMHO, the answer should be "crack down on disposable,
| unfixable, ephemeral gadgets" and quality decline in general.
| There are all kinds of apologetics defending disposablity and
| lack of repair-ability, but it's all bullshit to justify the
| enshittified status quo.
|
| Appliances should be designed to last 25 years. Even if that
| means the up-front cost is more expensive, it's better for
| everyone except appliance salesmen than buying 5 appliances
| that only last 5 years each. Large manufactures should be
| required to provide a stable supply of repair parts. Any tech
| that can be made reusable should be made reusable. And I'm
| personally fine with an unwieldy government bureaucracy to
| bully our fine corporations and their executives into
| compliance. They've shown they need it.
| riffic wrote:
| how do you effectively shame people into doing the _right_ thing
| here, as opposed to just letting them do the wrong thing at an
| alarming scale?
| switch007 wrote:
| You mean shame the producers?
| Timshel wrote:
| I would shame the ones producing. Stuff like disposable vape
| should just not exists.
|
| They are the one making a profit from this pollution ..
| tuatoru wrote:
| How is that possible? Companies are completely sociopathic.
| Whatever they say, they're only saying that to get people to
| buy their stuff.
|
| Shame cannot work.
| saulpw wrote:
| Shame is not a viable mechanism at scale (particularly across
| cultures). Particularly with the rise of extreme partisanship,
| shame lobbed at one group will be turned into an identity and
| used provactively (see e.g. "rolling coal").
| nickthegreek wrote:
| Well it seems disposable vapes are a pretty big part of the
| problem and you would think would be a pretty easy thing to
| regulate.
| MandieD wrote:
| The only people more attracted to disposable vapes than
| teenagers are preschoolers. My husband and I have confiscated
| at least three so far that the kid has managed to find while
| we're out walking or the worst, one on a playground. I guess at
| least it's not needles, though two of them had little batteries
| that were frighteningly easy to get at.
| ok_dad wrote:
| I don't think you can effectively regulate any of these things
| without changing the way society operates. Our economy, the whole
| world, is currently based on growth. We need to switch our
| society to one that isn't based on constant growth. Then, there
| will be things we can do like regulate disposable things so that
| only very important disposable items are allowed, like medical
| supplies that need to be perfectly clean or whatever. Until we're
| all on the same page of not wasting resources in the altar of
| growth, not much can be done to effectively fix this problem.
| Tech solutions like fancy recycling are like that Simpsons
| episode where they have a problem with some invasive animal, so
| they release an increasingly complex chain of invasive animals to
| kill the previous invasive animal, leading to releasing gorillas
| to eat snakes who will then die in the winter. You are just
| pushing the real problem down the road.
| philips wrote:
| It is a slog trying to keep electronics out of the landfill. This
| year I have repaired:
|
| Two switch joycons with failing internal flexible cables
|
| A failing switch joycon battery
|
| A dehumidifier that failed due to a faulty on/off switch
|
| Two Casper lights with failing internal batteries
|
| I do my best to research and buy stuff that is somewhat
| repairable but it is a slog and in many cases a leap of faith
| that the item be repairable and have parts you can hack or buy.
| kingnothing wrote:
| The article touts the recyclability of many of these items, but
| recycling them is a pain. Until consumers can simply toss
| electronics in a curbside bin or easily drop off a handful for
| free at the local big box electronics store, it won't happen in
| the States. Even glass, which we all recognize as recyclable,
| isn't feasibly recyclable in many municipalities. Sure, you can
| save it, sort it, and take it to a special facility, but most
| people won't because it's a time consuming hassle.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-10-12 21:01 UTC)