Because it’s a PITA to recycle e-waste, at least where I live in the US. My municipality charges extra to drop off e-waste, and they only have a few days a year where they have dropoff at the local transfer center to get rid of e-waste.
Hope you have the day off and the cash to pay to get rid of whatever it is.
If you have Best Buys they have e-waste recycling available year round. It doesn’t really solve the problem though, it just ships it off to poorer countries.
I’ll have to check that out, I assume it’s for a fee? Thanks.
It’s free. I believe, Best Buy packages it all up and ships it to China. I believe Chinese companies pay for the waste, and then pay very poor people to pick through it for valuable (and toxic) metals. A lot of the metals etc. end up in the groundwater. In other words, it’s still mostly pollution, but dropping it off at Best Buy makes it someone else’s pollution…
Not sure how to feel about all of it to be honest. I still recycle at Best Buy, but it’s kinda like recycling plastic in the municipal recycling, I know most of it ends up in the garbage, and thus as pollution, ultimately. But I still put it where it’s ‘supposed’ to go.
I used to live in a county where it was incredibly easy. Just pull into their clean transfer center and they’ll take it out of your trunk for you. Not just e-waste, but toxic stuff like paint and motor oil. And it was paid for by a very small tax increase.
But now that I live in a different county I have to drop off my electronics between 9 and 3 on a weekday, and there is no mechanism for me to dispose of toxic household waste.
Just another byproduct of enshittification. Novadays, a top-end Garmin watch lasts about as long as a Chinese watch of a brand with random characters you buy off Amazon. Google is introducing planned obsolesence in Fitbit. Banking apps are beginning to require phones that are no more than 4 years old. TVs get bricked with firmware upgrades. So, consumers are trained to buy cheapest, least reliable electronics, because over time they’ll provide more value than top-end items which used to last much longer. (This was written on a 13 years old phone. I may not have access to my banking app anymore, but otherwise it works for everything I need, and I haven’t contributed to e-waste in this regard. Not that the pollution angle was my reason to keep the phone, but it’s a nice extra bonus.)
I can guarantee this user is not using an iPhone from 2011 - the iPhone 4s went to shit after the first few years of updates
Don’t be so certain. Using jailbreaks the 4s can be downgraded to either 8.4.1 or 6.1.3. My own one is on 8.4.1 and old.Lemmy.world renders perfectly on it. I’ll grab it actually and see if I can reply to this comment.
I’ve always thought I had a 4s laying around. But just checked and it’s a 5c. With a broken screen. Would that be worth to have fixed and try to jailbreak to use it in 2024?
Most I do is Whatsapp, Lemmy, YouTube and browse the web. Casually.
I have a Galaxy S7 right now but it has never been comfortable to hold for me and the battery is getting old.
Hello! Not sure if the screenshot will attach to this comment but I was able to successfully log into Lemmy and I’m replying to your comment from my iPhone 4s.
With all of this being said and done, I do agree that OP is not likely to be using an iPhone. An Android phone from this period is way more usable than this iPhone even with all the hacks I’ve done to it.
Haha that’s pretty awesome! Maybe I was too quick to judge :-D
That is an old phone! Makes me wish my OnePlus One did not break. I miss that phone, I would probably still be using it if it hadn’t.
Google is introducing planned obsolesence in Fitbit
Have they? In what way?
They’ve done good work for Android and Pixel, promising 7 years of updates for the latest Pixels. Samsung has also gotten much better about this with their recent phones. That’s going to put a huge dent in the e-waste as Android phones have surely been heavy contributors (certainly much higher than fitbit).
TVs get bricked with firmware upgrades.
What TVs? Vizio, Hisense, the Chinese junk budget brands?
Very sympathetic to your e-waste concerns; I think the source of the problem is actually getting better not worse though. In general, the mobile tech sector is “growing up” and supporting products longer.
Have they? In what way?
This is speculation by Ars Technica. Essentially, a recent firmware upgrade seems to have drastically lowered the battery life of some models. In addition, they are removing all third-party apps in the EU in response to the DMA.
What TVs? Vizio, Hisense, the Chinese junk budget brands?
Most recently Roku. But I used a TV only as an example. A year ago, an OTA upgrade bricked microwave ovens. Google’s history of bricking its smart home products goes back to at least 2016, companies like Wink threaten to brick your devices unless you suddenly start paying a monthly fee on top of your purchase price “for life”, there were reports of smart bulbs or thermostats ceasing working as well.
The following is pure speculation on my part: I think we’re at the beginning of a huge wave of planned obsolescence. Everyone and their mother are now training AI’s, and they want their customers to replace older products, which don’t support AI integration, with new ones. They’ll soon stop supporting the older devices or outright bricking them, to force people to buy the new ones.
About a month ago my neighbor left a nice looking TV out by the trash for bulk item pickup with a note saying, “not sure if this works, but free if you want it.” Cosmetically the unit looked to be in good shape, but sure enough when I bring it inside to test, none of the HDMI ports would pick up a signal. I tried different HDMI cables and devices to double check. All of the TV menus would work and there was static on the cable channel, so I knew the pixels themselves were fine. I opened the unit up to find 3 separate circutboards inside, a main board (with the HDMI ports soldered on), a power board, and I think a timing board or something like that (forget the acronym I came across researching). Well I decided to roll the dice and replace the main board with a $130 purchase for a replacement, took about 30 minutes to swap out. Sure enough with a new main board the TV, HDMI units and all, worked perfectly. Now I’m up a 60" Sharp AQUOS TV (~$1500 new) for the price of the replacement board. More importantly, the satisfaction of plugging in an HDMI and seeing a signal come through was priceless. Support right to repair, we have an obligation to preserving and reusing the resources we have access to.
Have you ever had a Logitech mouse start to act funny with the left click? Maybe it double clicks when you know you’ve single clicked, or you click and drag and it doesn’t? Yeah it’s probably the microswitch. I’ve got a little herd of M570’s, after a few years they all start doing that, so I pop them open, it’s like 4 or 5 screws hidden under the little rubber feet and one in the battery compartment, desolder the switch, solder on a new one, and it’s back to working like new.
I’ve had a guy arguing with me that that’s not worth it.
I had a random orbital sander stop working. So many people these days would say “It’s a $99 tool, I’ll just throw it away and buy a new one.” I took mine apart and cleaned the dust out of it. Running like brand new.
Why are people so afraid of fixing things?
Personally, I think a factor is there’s been a shift by companies in general to not make things as obvious to repair. My dad has a unibody 2012 MacBook Pro and the book literally tells you how to open it so you can service it by upgrading the RAM; a far cry from the situation today.
Older tools were held together with some common screws and were all built the same, so there wasn’t too much concern from the layman popping one open to clean it out to service it. Modern power tools just don’t look like you should be opening them, as the screws are completely hidden, they’re hard to open comparatively, and its usually the battery that goes anyway, which can’t be replaced when it’s been discontinued.
My Logitech G500s had the funny clicker, I have a soldering iron but that felt a bit too fiddly (at the time) but I was able to dismantle the switch itself on the board and bend the contacts a bit. Been three years and it’s still behaving. The cable went too at one point, with random disconnects as it moved. Was surprised to discover I could just order a new cable that plugged into the internal socket and it was good as new!
Sometimes it can be an exercise in frustration. My wife’s Redmi note 10 is on its 4th screen, the original and third ones were dropped, the second was shit and crapped out after a couple of months, the fourth is showing signs of going the same way. Along with occasional locking up and WiFi problems that are fixed with a reboot (pretty sure I didn’t break it on my many delves into its guts) I decided fuck it, its a ~£200 phone, get something else this time.
So instead I’m tearing my hair out trying to get her new Samsung A54 to restore the last Google backup.
Wish I had your neighbors. Mine almost always smash their stuff before dumping in the bin so no one else can use it.
Although a few things have creeped through. My current desktop is a AMD something or other, 4Ghz, 32GB Ram, 500GB ssd and all I had to do was get an IO shield and replace some fans.
Reminds me of the time I found a TV in the trash that said “remote doesn’t work.” I opened it up and the sensor had somehow been bent out of alignment, so I bent it back and that TV’s been in my bedroom ever since.
They should really mandate open firmware and bootloaders, and even spec sheets, etc. for deprecated hardware.
But muh “trade secrets” and “security”
And lawmakers don’t even know what a bootloader is.
In the 2010s, my neighbor asked me to fix their iPad because i was technically literate. I noticed it had a EoL date and it was fast approaching. I realized that iPads were just bigger iPhones. And Chromebooks were also getting popular.
I then realized we were all fucked.
We have all this “disposable” tech that only have a window of about 3-4 years before it breaks down. Even with open-source and boot loading, there’s just so much garbage and it’ll only continue to grow.
We should also force all these tech companies to take in any e-waste (batteries, cables, usb drives, hard drives, plastic containers, anything) and dispose of it properly.
dispose of it properly
Ship it to the Philippines and the container mysteriously vanishes mid transit?
Every product should have a clear EOL path, most preferably a recyclable one. Indeed it should be on manufacturers shoulders to enable it and on legislation to require it.
Man wouldn’t it be nice to have responsible governments?
and dispose of it properly
Introducing i-Landfill™!
Think different!®
Tech is becoming more difficult to repair as well. Had a phone that somehow got its WiFi broken. Did everything I could do software wise, so I concluded it was something with the hardware.
Asked a repair shop what they could do. Well they could replace the entire board with CPU and everything, but that’s going to cost about the same as buying a new phone. The choice was easy.
Tech is becoming more difficult to repair as well
There’s a bit of sanity in the world: https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/consumer-protection-law/consumer-contract-law/rules-promoting-repair-goods_en
Framework is a great company, but I’m a bit torn on Fairphone. Not sure if I like where their company is going.
I’ve been toying with an idea that the government should keep track of purchases (voluntarily and anonymously) and they should have minimum guaranteed. So if your freezer only last 10 years then the government can see this, or you can see this on the website and the manufacturer has to repair it or refund it fully. Different products have different guarantees
That would sort out shit products pretty quick.
The issue is holding that capital for insurance, especially for new companies (like seriously this is a potential dealbreaker problem) but it might have the added benefit that shite from China can’t get insurance and can’t be sold, only local products can, or products from the west.
Secondly the price of recycling should be included in the upfront cost and the government should provide free recycling. Or it is 150% of recycling cost and the consumer gets the 50% back when they recycle rather than throwing it in a river.
I’ve been toying with an idea that the government should keep track of purchases (voluntarily and anonymously) and they should have minimum guaranteed.
There is already stuff like that where I live in the EU, it runs basically on (e-)receipts or other proofs of sale. Don’t mandatory warranties exist in the US?
that shite from China can’t get insurance
Oh, it totally will, and they will even pretend everything is alright when sold, then by the time you try getting at them the company won’t exist.
There is some in the US but enforcement is lacking.
Bullshit. I have an iPad from 2011 still in use, Macbook from 2012 still fine running Debian, etc.
I understand that if you’re tech incompetent you need to throw shit out after 2 years, but don’t blame the rest of us for the amount of trash you produce.
Edit: Funny how people downvote someone else for their own dumb actions. You’re all consumers, and bad ones at it apparently.
You gave an example where it is possible to install linux and only basic functionality is required, but what do you think happens with almost all mobile devices?
When it is not possible to change OS/ROM, or they are old, there is no alternative… apart from being stuck with an obsolete OS and apps full of known bugs. Or are you “competent” enough to develop everything yourself?
True to a degree but you can do similar things with thinkpads and keep them longer. The company can always extend lifetime by enabling repairability and upgradeability. But this goes against their profit since they then can’t sell a new product every two years. The consumer shouldn’t have to find ways around planned obsolescence and feel superior if they manage to solve this puzzle.
If you can do the same shit with solar panels or cars or whatever device that has a proprietary bootloader or glued together, then you can climb back on to your high horse.
Don’t buy the shit you know you won’t use in a decade. Not that hard.
Problem is that people will keep buying it, companies going to keep marketing and selling it, and the landfills get ever bigger.
Pretty much this. If you buy decent stuff and take care of it, then there’s now less of an expiration date than ever before in my experience.
Computers 20+ years ago were really old after 5 years, but nowadays you can put an SSD into a PC from 10 years ago and it will be more than good enough for most people’s usage. And if it doesn’t have enough memory for the current windows 10 bloat, then Linux is an option, but imo it’s better to just add extra ram so that the user can just stay with a familiar os.
Likewise tablets and smartphones, buy decent specs, don’t use cheap chargers and don’t drop them too often and they just seem too last. And if they do slow down, then a factory reset is easy+fast and can bring them to life again. In my family an almost 10y old Shield K1 still works smoothly for daily online media consumption. A cheap Samsung and Microsoft surface from the same era are now giving a horrible experience though, but those 2 were always shit in comparison to the shield.
Bu-bu-but I’ll DIE without the latest Macbook! 😭
yours and the parent comment are sniffing your own farts. You can’t think of any other industries where a device cannot be fixed?
Devices definitely can be fixed in this industry, especially older ones.
I’m very opposed to anti-repair features of modern devices but I’m not sure what that’s got to do with my comment? If you get a good device you can use it for many years even without needing to repair it.
Most people don’t replace a device because it’s broken beyond repair (especially Apple users), rather they replace it because it’s more than a few days old and they want a new one…
yours and the parent comment are sniffing your own farts
Seems you don’t recognize humor when it slaps you in the face. No way Adanisi’s comment was in any way meant to be taken serious.
the solution here is simple. we just stop recycling altogether. 5 times 0 is 0.
More like 5 divided by 0 is infinite.
More like 5 divided by 0 is infinite.
Positive infinite or negative infinite?
yeahhh i was mostly coping through humor.
So the state should build up more recycling capacity, subsidize it.
Properly disposing of any product should be baked into the purchase price. If you wanna buy cheap plastic shit then you should pay for society to get rid of it when you’re done with it. But that makes way too much sense so it will never happen.
That’s communism and communism is evil. /s
As long as Ghana isn’t full, we Westerners can keep consuming waste happily.
I mean, what is the value of a Ghanaian child compared to having to use a phone for 10 years with a third battery replacement?
/s …you dropped that.
I thought that was obvious enough.
It was very obvious.
But text can’t have a tone of voice or display body language, it’s use is to distinguish ourselves from the people who actually say and believe the insane stuff.
Even worse, is when some nutcase says something like this, and then gets upvotes and validation. Not realising that a bunch of people assumed it was sarcasm.
I know we left reddit but https://www.reddit.com/r/FuckTheS/
It serves a purpose tho, in that as text can’t have a tone of voice or display body language, you do need to distinguish yourself from the people who actually say and believe the insane stuff.
Without it, there will be a fraction of people who misinterpret what you meant. It’s not about “fearing downvotes”.
While I definitely get that it’s becoming harder to distinguish sarcasm from the truly insane, I think he sufficiently crossed the chasm of doubt by implying Ghana should continue to be the dumping ground for the West and again when he equated the value of a Ghanaian child’s life to a phone.
People who actually believe that stuff try to hide it a little better. For now.
Agreed, but let’s not pretend r/fuckthes has a point in it being dumb and unnecessary.
Using it removes even the slightest room for misinterpretation. That is always a good thing.
But the point of sarcasm is to be an undertone, using /s makes it a strong overtone to the point you may as well just say “I’m being sarcastic” after you finish.
It’s about as bad as explaining a joke, which is not a good thing.
Right, but isn’t that something we effectively do anyway, with tone of voice and body language?
And if someone doesn’t pick up on our sarcasm in person, do we just let them go on thinking we believe something we actually don’t?
No. We do go “I was being sarcastic” and then they burst out laughing and go “oh damn, you got me for a second there haha”.
We announce our sarcasm in a variety of ways regardless of the setting. The point of making it unmissable online, is that if you don’t, there will be fraction of people who walk away having misinterpreted what you were saying. In person we can make sure that doesn’t happen, online in a public forum, not so much.
And since when is explaining a joke to someone who doesn’t get it, a bad thing? Are you seriously arguing that ruining the joke (whether it is even ruined in the first place is debatable, imo) is too much to trade in for helping people understand?
Yet they’re still able to put those stupid fucking recycling labels on their products as if it’s recycled.
Not sure which one you mean but I have a feeling it’s a lot like the resin identification code where it looks like the recycling symbol but isn’t. It’s to make you think it can be recycled so you don’t feel as bad about buying it and throwing it away.
My sector. Go ahead and pay me more if you want more.
deleted by creator
“Come on guys, solar panels don’t make that much waste. Besides, it’s renewable!”
“Nuclear Fission is dangerous, we shouldn’t make more power plants, invest in things like solar!”
Don’t mind me, just waving my tiny “I was right” flag as we drown in our own hubris.
How are we even supposed to know what’s right anymore? Am I supposed to vote for the solar or the nuclear fanatics? I just wanna save the fucking climate, what should I do?
Well, the ‘nuclear fanatics’ are probably the best bet for actually saving the climate. The energy to waste ratio makes renewable energy look like a squirt gun compared to a fire hose. Even including the nuclear disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima, renewable energy is more dangerous to human life.
If you care to learn in video format, Kyle Hill has done an invaluable service illustrating very important things about nuclear energy.
Well, the ‘nuclear fanatics’ are probably the best bet for actually saving the climate.
Are you volunteering your basement as storage location for nuclear waste? It’s funny how the biggest nuclear proponents are usually the ones who scream the loudest when their region is target for a geological survey for a possible storage location.
Yes I am volunteering my basement for that. Being literal. If you really think my basement is the best place you are welcome to pay me off to use it. I await you to put your money where your mouth is.
s funny how the biggest nuclear proponents are usually the ones who scream the loudest when their region is target for a geological survey for a possible storage location.
Citation needed. I want the names of ten people who match your criteria and decibel levels.
Citation needed.
I don’t click random YouTube vids. I want a citation in a journal peer-reviewed
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/rxbq9ff8CH8?t=1573
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Are you volunteering your basement as storage location for nuclear waste?
Yes, absolutely. Kyle hill has many videos. One where he’s kissing a barrel of nuclear waste. You have a very outdated idea of what modern nuclear energy is and I highly suggest actually clicking the link I provided.
It’s funny how the people who rally the hardest against nuclear have no fucking idea what it is beyond the disasters.
Yes, absolutely.
Then go to your politicians and do. Talk is cheap.
I can’t literally put them in my basement, Fred. They’re in my state already and I support them existing. What do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
Apparently you’re the minority. That’s good.
Nuclear. Go ahead and call me a fantic or whatever you want, I am sure I have been called worse. Renewables in anything resembling a near timeline aren’t up fro the task and we should have started decades ago.
It is one of the depressing things about tech. We often know the exact solution and convince ourselves that it won’t work.
Nuclear, preferably fusion works out and energy becomes a non-issue. But nothing else we have can beat the reliability, energy density and power-to-emissions ratio of nuclear.
I’m very sick of hearing about nuclear from Reddit/lemmy. If it was a realistic, affordable solution we’d be doing it. But it’s not. It just seems like it is to the layman.
There’s a reason the market and governments went all in on renewables and it isn’t just paranoia about nuclear accidents. Building a nuclear plant takes ten years minimum and it’s incredibly expensive, and has a lower margin for profit. In that amount of time governments/companies can build tens of thousands of renewable energy stations.
The issue of waste from solar is real, but the fact is even with that waste it’s done far more to reduce emissions than nuclear ever has or ever could.
If it was a realistic, affordable solution we’d be doing it.
No, if it wasn’t lobbied against and fearmongered by oil and coal, public sentiment would support it and funding would go along with it. If you think it’s cheaper to throw massive solar panels into every open field and that we’d get anywhere approaching the energy a nuclear power plant could produce then you’ve lost the plot.
it isn’t just paranoia about nuclear accidents.
Yes it is.
Building a nuclear plant takes ten years minimum and it’s incredibly expensive,
The energy output offsets the cost faster than alternatives and if we started ten years ago we’d have them by now. Not starting right now because you think it’s too late is the reason they weren’t built a decade ago. Some kind of fuckin reverse sunk cost fallacy with you people. Also, ten years minimum? Some have been built in three years.
The issue of waste from solar is real, but the fact is even with that waste it’s done far more to reduce emissions than nuclear ever has or ever could.
Dumbest shit you’ve said in this post so I’m glad you left it till last. Since 1971 Nuclear Power is estimated to have prevented 64 trillion gigatons of carbon emissions. To put it into perspective, that’s the amount the United States would generate if we powered ourselves completely with coal for 35 years. The positive climate impact of nuclear is so incomprehensibly superior to renewables that your stance against it isn’t just stupid - it’s costing lives.
It’s hilarious how utterly delusional you are lol. Yeah you go ahead and keep telling yourself that an oil industry conspiracy is pushing renewables over nuclear and not the fundamental economics of the situation. Nuclear isn’t and never will be a realistic solution to climate change.
Also— your own article states that the fastest nuclear reactors were built in Japan. Well guess what, that’s bizarr because Japan skirted all kinds of safety practices to build their reactors and that’s how you get garbage plants like Fukushima. All of the new reactors getting built now are planned for ten years or more, which your article also confirms.
And no, you are blatantly wrong that only paranoia is getting in the way of nuclear. Countries aren’t building nuclear because it makes no fucking sense when you can generate the same amount of power for far cheaper with renewables. Renewables are also serving as the baseline power source all around the world and they do the job just fine. Nuclear isn’t needed.
It’s obvious you’re just another rude, know-it-all douchebag who is actually far more ignorant on this topic than you realize. Straight to my blocked list.
It just seems like it is to the layman.
Ought from an is. Basic fallacy.
Building a nuclear plant takes ten years minimum and it’s incredibly expensive, and has a lower margin for profit. In that amount of time governments/companies can build tens of thousands of renewable energy stations.
No. France built many in half that length of time. It does have a low profit margin because it is the only energy source that fully captures it’s external costs. Your solar power is only possible because the cells are “recycled” in places where they don’t give a fuck.
The issue of waste from solar is real, but the fact is even with that waste it’s done far more to reduce emissions than nuclear ever has or ever could.
I want a citation of that. And given that nuclear power is seven decades old very much good luck with that.