Planned Obsolescence
Consumers of the world unite.
Photo by Kilian Seiler on Unsplash
A big part of the problem with our global economic model is that we consume too much. We live on a planet with finite resources and using those resources has an environmental footprint, usually a negative one. For example, the food you eat likely has a carbon footprint, a pesticide footprint, a plastic packaging footprint, a land use footprint, a water use footprint, and so on. All those processes hurt the environment in some way, and if we are living a sustainable life those damages need to be repaired to bring the system back in balance.
But it's hard to live in balance in a global capitalist system. As I've said before, capitalism isn't evil it's just the system we have, and it is flawed. Every system has flaws. We need to recognize them, address them, and fix them.
But that's not where we are as a society.
Many companies, especially companies that produce consumer goods have planned obsolescence built into their business models.
What is planned obsolescence? Here is the Wikipedia definition for you:
Planned obsolescence is a strategy of designing a product with a limited useful life or a frail design so that it becomes obsolete or unfashionable after a certain period of time. This way, the product's maker can ensure that consumers will seek replacements in the future, thus increasing demand.
Folks who make your smartphone, your refrigerator, your dishwasher, and generally any other consumer good in and around your home, want you to buy that thing, use it up as quickly as you can, and then buy a new one.
What does planned obsolescence look like?
I found this great list from veryinformed.com, that cited a number of familiar examples of planned obsolescence. Take a look at a few examples, of what they found for a deeper dive but I'll summarize it here.
1. Older models of iPhones slowed down whenever a software update occurred, eventually leading consumers to feel they needed a new phone
2. Some printer ink cartridges had smart chips that didn't allow you to use all the ink.
3. Disposable clothing and fast fashion.
4. Automakers bring new models of the same car every year with slightly different parts, and over time, don’t carry parts for older vehicles. When parts for old cars need to be replaced, they often can’t be found.
5. The video game industry requires consumers to buy new video game consoles to play newer games, requiring consumers to buy a whole new video game system more often than they need to.
6. Smart TVs need software updating every few years, even though the hardware is fine. This leads to people throwing away, or hopefully recycling, perfectly good TVs just because the apps and software are not supported anymore by the company that made the TV.
The environmental footprint of this planned obsolescence is enormous. The money it costs us as consumers to buy new phones, new ink cartridges, new TV's, new gaming systems more often than we otherwise would is enormous. Products that last twice as long would likely be more expensive in the short term, but in the long term would cost less. This is especially true if you factor in the environmental damage that we are doing by using more resources to buy new things that we all wish lasted longer.
What is the cost of all this?
It is estimated that about 50 million tons of electronic waste is generated every year. About 85% of this is usually thrown away. Cutting down on planned obsolescence could of course make a large dent in these numbers. It's also estimated that planned obsolescence costs consumers about €50,000 in their lifetime. That's a pretty significant amount of money, much more than a year's salary in most countries.
What can you do about it?
Many people aren't even aware of planned obsolescence, I hadn't heard of it until a couple of years ago and when I did, was angry I'd never thought about it before. So, the first is understanding that there is a problem and alerting people to it.
We can then start requiring companies to be more responsible about planned obsolescence.
That happened last week in Europe where the EU passed a Right to Repair Law.
The rule will force companies to stand by their products for an extra 12 months after repairs are made. Consumers will also have more choices between repair and replacement of defective products during a period that sellers will be required to offer.
The rule prohibits companies from putting up barriers to repair. This means companies can't use contractual hardware or software-related barriers to repair, and we'll have to make sure parts are available for such repairs for older models.
Products covered, are smartphones, tablets, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, fridges, displays, servers, and vacuum cleaners.
If you think that a right-to-repair law is some lefty European anti-capitalist crap, just wait. It may be spreading, as the White House in the US convened a right-to-repair summit in October of 2023 to study the issue.
As consumers around the world learn more about planned obsolescence, and that their brothers and sisters in Europe have better rights than they do to protect them from planned obsolescence, they may warm up to right-to-repair laws.
Call your local representative to chat about the topic. I'm sure they'll be glad to hear from you.