US E-Waste and Planned Obsolescence by Elizabeth Lamb - US Environmental Policy - 0 views
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In order to increase sales, companies like Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft engage “planned obsolescence” to encourage per capita turnover of cell phones, tablets, computers, increasing electronic consumption and waste in the process.
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For example, a company might manufacture a phone’s battery so that it breaks down earlier, a new software update might rely extensively on a new kind of hardware, or the manufacturer might make repairing the product so difficult or expensive that it makes more sense to buy a new product altogether.
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Although e-waste only composed 2% of US landfills in 2019, it is responsible for over 70% of waste toxicity, and it is America’s fastest growing category of municipal waste.
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exported up to 40% of its e-waste to other countries.[5] However, the waste landscape is changing quickly: China, a major waste importer, banned foreign waste shipments as of January 2018.[6] As the US must begin processing more waste domestically, it is increasingly important that proper regulations are set in place
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25 out of 50 states have independent e-waste recycling policies, but a federal policy has yet to come to fruition
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By simply extending product lifetimes by even just a quarter through the measures mentioned above, the US can massively reduce the amount of e-waste that pollutes the US.
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This article talks about planned obsolescence and US e-waste. This article talks about how tech companies engage in planned obsolescence to encourage technology turnover. They talk about ways that the US can stop this planned obsolescence. One way would be to enforce durability standard for products creating a longer life time. This could be partnered with an enforced longer warranty on electronic devices.