WEEKENDER: The E-waste trail, by JD

This link to Al Jazeera is still working although the video/film has disappeared (as has Al Jazeera TV):

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2014/09/e-waste-trail-2014924132443417118.html

In 2014 I saw a post about Austin Sevens (vintage autos) from James Higham (on his now defunct WordPress version of Nourishing Obscurity) that reminded me. They are still going strong after all these years – unlike modern computers etc.

There was a feature on Al Jazeera about the problem of ‘e-waste’ which is old computers and phones being exported to the third world and dumped on rubbish tips. Somebody in Ghana decided to collect things which had identifiable stamps on them. He found stuff from Leeds Council and other councils plus things stamped with the names of government departments. He was then seen presenting the things to a Councillor in Leeds and got the usual buck passing; third party contractor takes away old stuff or it was donated to charities etc.

But my mind works in different ways. I could see the names Compaq and HP etc and I thought why does he not go to those manufacturers and ask why, unlike the Austin Seven, their products cannot be adapted or designed to have a much longer life. I thought first of all about modern record players most of which can play any record made in the past 100 years or so. They will still play the old 78s. Music centres usually allow for cassette tapes and CDs as well.

So why does Microsoft update their systems in a way which has rendered obsolete my two digital cameras as well as my scanner? They were only cheap cameras but they would still work if I had access to the old Windows XP or Vista or whatever it was. Why this built in obsolescence? Presumably to sell the new stuff which means throwing away the old stuff which, of course, ends up on rubbish tips in Ghana where people scavenge for salvageable parts.

Built-in obsolescence is a sales gimmick invented by the American automobile industry in the Fifties. A new model every year but the newness was only skin deep, it was the styling which was changed but the same old mechanicals remained unchanged. The new car performed exactly like the old car, it used the same petrol, the accelerator and brake pedals were in the same place as in the old car, the steering and suspension were as vague and sloppy as they ever were.

The new ‘techie’ obsolescence unfortunately is much more revolutionary. It seems that the ‘hardware/software’ (i.e. the equivalent of the mechanicals in the car) is what has been changed (improved?) and any techie devices designed for the existing hardware/software becomes useless immediately and we have to buy a new version on what feels like a weekly basis.

And what happens to the old ones? They are dumped in landfill sites in Africa or India.

What a mad cycle.