[50 years and going strong V 50 weeks and 'had it']
The 3-in-1 printer at Df HQ gave up the ghost the other day. Apparently it didn’t want to feed itself any more. Worried for its health and our own (on a highly stressful deadline – of course) we searched the Canon website for our local printer doctor. We gave them a call only to receive the advice, “It’ll cost about $80 to fix and you can buy a new, faster one for under $50 these days.” Riiight … don’t need Econ 101 to figure that one out, but what a waste! The printer’s basically fine, still scans, just seems to have a wonky appetite.
We google “printer recycling” and come up with a few places to call, only no-one returns our calls. It seems a bad chewing mechanism just relegated this printer to the footpath. Which brings me to my point … In a nut-shell, they just don’t make ‘em like they used to and we’re so short-term focused that we buy (literally) into that. As consumers, we’re the only ones who can bring back quality, things made to last a lifetime (and then some) and workmanship. What do you reckon?
ps. this rant was inspired by Platform 21’s Repair Manifesto … it’s fantastic.
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6 responses so far ↓
I so, so agree and though we all sound like nanas – back in my day – I think there will be a movement against the whole disposable culture thing we’ve got goin’ on. At least I hope so. I heard a designer on Triple J some years back talking about how new model tech gadgets were made with different ports and rechargers so buyers couldn’t just update – they were forced to upgrade because old chargers and fittings didn’t match the existing products. Forced rubbish and waste creation. Tsk tsk.
Haha I enjoyed reading this, it’s something which I deal with (and most likely everyone deals with) every day. It seems it costs more to keep things which a worthwhile, and cheaper to just replace them. Bit of a wierd turn of events, really.
It’s also quite sad, and I definitely look after the things in my life which have been there for me through the hard times and come out still working. :)
And the scary/sad thing is that built in obsolescence is DESIGNED into products and has been a very intentional design goal for product designers for many years.
See the story of stuff for a great video and explanation of how all this came to be: http://www.thestoryofstuff.com
Have you read “Cradle to Cradle”, a book by William McDonough and Michael Braungart?
They are two Americans, an architect and a chemist whose philosophy is that everything should be designed in a way that it can either be repaired, or every single element of it recycled in a way that NOTHING about the item pollutes the planet.
They have worked on some huge projects in the States.
My favourite part of their philosophy is the idea that there is no such place as “away”. As in, “I’m throwing this away”. Away is just somewhere else on the planet that’s out of sight to you.
I also resent the fact that you can buy a printer for $50 but the replacement ink cartridges are $70! The printer doesn’t even have to pretend to be broken for it to be cheaper to buy a new one with ink! After working in a school for eight years the disposable nature of these things has been highlighted in my inheritance of three printers, over the years, that were no longer fit for service – and (almost) always serve me well – with only the occassional misalignment to remind me of their dark past. At school I think I eventually became a bit of an “RSPCA” for unwanted technology – fine by me!
Just found a fantastic (short) flick that just about sums this up. It’s by a crew called ‘Nothing’ from Amsterdam. Visit their site (http://www.nothingamsterdam.com/) and click on ‘Buy Less, Spend More’ to watch. While oyu’re there, check out their office made entire of cardboard. It’s fantastic!