Our throw-away economy

After a disastrous couple of weeks of appliances breaking down on us (food processor blade, line trimmer, etc.) I tried to find ways to repair the items myself or have it repaired locally. I was amazed to find out that most items are cheaper to replace than to repair (if even this most of the time isn't even an option).

Got advise from the OEM: "toss it and buy a new trimmer because this machine is not built to repair and is more "economic" for me

Some products have a limited life built into them while others become out of date by new and improved models. Either way we as consumers have to buy certain products a second, third, or even more times in a life time.

Why is it this way?

Why do we keep on replacing items? Is there really a built in expiry date in? I know about a light bulb in the US that has been illuminating the darkness for 118 years!. The bulb has a webcam on it, and 3 of which have already expired.

This show some evidence that businesses “Don’t make products the way they used to.” That light bulb was made before the manufacturers of such devices figured out how to make their products die in a few months.

In 1924, manufacturers Philips, General Electric, and Osram, got together to form the Phoebus Cartel. These companies were concerned that their light bulbs were lasting too long, about 2,500 hours at the time, and this was depressing sales. So, they downgraded the bulbs to burn out after 1,000 hours instead.

The iPhone

The first iPhone was introduced in 2007, now 12 years later the iPhone XS Max was introduced, the 21st model in the line. Some of the earlier versions no longer work on today’s networks; they are obsolete. For example, iPhone 5, once the world’s most advanced smartphone, was introduced in 2012. In October 2018, Apple declared the device to be “vintage and obsolete.” so a shelf life for the most advanced smart phone of less than 6 years.

Now what?

Well in case of the line trimmer, there is no solution for me than to buy a new one as we are not allowed to put a herd of sheep to graze the grass as we would prefer.

For other items we just keep on trying to repair ourselves, for sure we avoid trendy goods; look for workshops to learn how to repair products; maybe we should start a joined community tool pool; we already buy second hand; and the best is I guess Go without.

The positive side

Well as we are almost there to start up with our plastic recycle machines we have a lot of plastic to add to this, the electrical motor inside the trimmer we will use to make a "plastic washing machine" more comfortable.