I had an interesting experience yesterday that really highlighted the waste in our society, and my absolute inability to do anything but, sadly, contribute to the problem.
I left the house early in the morning, our Subaru loaded with some older electronics, a lot of never used t-shirts, and a bunch of cardboard and styrofoam destined for recycling (from the replacements for the “older electronics”).
At the City Union Mission, I dropped off the surround-sound 5-disc DVD changer and the t-shirts. I took a minute to walk around, and really took particular note of the number of old electronics that were just never going to leave that place, happy that what I dropped off probably would. But the ancient cell phones, the Timex Sinclair 1000 computer, the old Windows 95/98 PCs—those are probably going to be there a bit.
The thing that stuck with me was the disposable nature of what are likely the two most-used and relied-upon-daily technologies (and heading to convergence, frankly): cell-phones and computers, and the fact that the disposable part is not driven by the product being “used up”, but rather by the rapid pace at which a more capable next-generation is not only available to take its place, but somehow also driven to do so. Nails are disposable, for example, but you don’t see the construction world generating new versions that require a hammer and tool belt upgrade in addition, (and nearly every 12-24 months), or the suppliers delivering wood that now requires a new generation of nails*.
I left kind of shook-up, the images of boxes of crappy Nokias** and shelves of old PCs stuck in my head. I dropped off the recycling and chuckled a bit at the irony, and then headed on over to the car dealership. I’d been looking for the past couple of months and spotted an ad at breakfast which was just what I’d been looking for.
Several hours later, I left with my new car! It was thrilling and just what I was looking for. As my wife and I pulled into my parent’s driveway later that evening, I stopped to admire the feel of a new steering wheel in my hands- it was positively great. I thought about our old car for a second—how there wasn’t really anything wrong with it functionally—we just wanted a new car.
And that was it, massive killjoy. There’s that same plastic tub full of Nokias, only now it’s massive and full of Subarus, Chevrolets, Fords, Nissans, and Kias. On a giant nearby shelf, loads of perfectly functional pickup trucks are collecting dust. And I was part of it, and nobody made me do it. Dammit!
At least the new car is a Prius. That’s something, isn’t it?
* I understand there are hundreds of new resin-type products and fasteners available, that resin and waste pre-fab I-beams are used, etc., but none of this has replaced the basic nail function, need, or design. Nail guns take nails specially packaged and joined, but they’re still just nails.
** To be clear: the Nokias released each year are stellar among their peers—these were just really old ones. It is actually a testament to Nokia that the box of ancient phones which someone thought another person could still use were almost all Nokias—other brands of the same age probably went straight to the trash :)
