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Planned obsolescence

Updated: Dec 25, 2021



I begin this article with a personal example. My CANDY refrigerator, which is just over 10 years old, has recently failed after a final repair 3 years ago. The refrigerator's cold is generated in the upper zone, which is where the freezer is, and passes to the lower zone, which is the regular refrigerator. The duct between the two gradually freezes and clogs up, and a thermostat activates a resistor to defrost it periodically, keeping the system unblocked.


In this case, this thermostat failed and the technical service informed me that, surprisingly, this well-known brand no longer manufactures the part. In other words, because of a simple thermostat that is no longer produced, I have to throw away a refrigerator that will only add waste to some landfill, as it is very unlikely to be recycled. This is a great illustrative example of the issue we are concerned about.


Household appliances - to take just one example of electronic devices - are largely produced in places like China, and are quite cheap in developed countries. But as these appliances have become cheaper, poor quality components have been introduced into them, as the companies' strategy is to force frequent replacement, without considering the huge amount of industrial waste that ends up in landfills in poor countries.


Moreover, the shift from primarily hardware-based systems to systems in which software performs functions previously performed by hardware, has magnified the problem of premature obsolescence. The software in our many electronic gadgets is constantly changing, and it is difficult to keep up with the times. Moreover, automatic software updates bring unpleasant surprises, with functions disappearing without any notice.


But the clearest and most dramatic case is the so-called "drivers" of computer peripherals such as printers, scanners, etc., which are not updated when operating systems change. I don't want to count how many such peripherals, such as a specialised book scanner, that I own, have stopped working overnight because there are no drivers for the new version of Windows.


A company like Apple, for example, uses its IOS operating system, which it is impossible to stop updating periodically, to make its $1000 smartphones obsolete after a few years. That it is possible for things to be otherwise is shown by the case of the iPhone 6: a few years ago, an update of the IOS operating system, breathed new life into this model, extending the time between battery charge periods without slowing down the Apps. This move was widely applauded, and with good reason.


Consumers currently have a few laws to protect them. That is, a time during which manufacturers must keep their devices current, i.e., repairable. In the European Union, for example, spare parts must be available for seven years for refrigerators and ten years for domestic washing machines and dishwashers. But what is the logic behind these deadlines? Why should a refrigerator be thrown away after only seven years of use?


We therefore propose to consider the total costs, not only for the production of appliances, but also for their recycling; introducing costs per production unit that penalise programmed obsolescence practices, and designs that do not consider energy saving and comprehensive recycling.


Source:



Dr. Harry Costin

 
 
 

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