On the BBC News website, I've just been reading about Restart parties. These are places where people go to take broken appliances, TVs, radios or just sentimental items that they don't want to throw away. In many cases, for example in computers, it is so that the items can be repaired, to be shipped to the 3rd World for use.
To me, this raises several questions on modern society. 1] We have lost the ability to repair otherwise perfectly good items, but for one or two components. 2] Socially, we are encouraged to ditch broken items to go out and buy new, and this impacts just as much upon the people who can't afford it as the ones who can. Since people have lost the ability to repair items they don't even consider that avenue, even when it is perfectly possible, but instead put their futures in further hock by purchasing new.
I think I've mentioned before, on this forum, of the time I popped down to the city recycling centre and brought away a perfectly usable computer. That one is now sitting in a friend's home, slightly upgraded, and although he was previously totally computer illiterate [I would suggest dangerously so, considering the way society is heading] he is now getting the hang of things. However, since then I have had the opportunity to visit the centre a few more times during my work. I have since brought away 4 more computers, all of which were thrown away, not because they were entirely faulty, but because their owners had obviously just wanted something new. You may say that everyone throws away computers, and sure they do, although I make sure mine go to the
Society of St James, where they make proper use of them, when I can't upgrade anyone else's kit that I know. Of those four computers, two needed ten minutes of TLC and they were running fine, and the other two fired up straight away. Of the four computers, one had a fast single processor, two had dual-core processors, and one had a quad-core inside. Yeah, unbelievable, but true. And of course, all the modern components were there to allow them to run. And by the way, the two that fired up instantly had all their data on them, which I have since erased to protect the former owners from their own naivety. To those people who have no idea, these are still fast computers, the last three very much so. OK, so all but the last one are no good at the very best games, but most people don't play games on their computers, so why are they throwing them away..?
Never mind. If the dumb, ignorant or just plain stupid continue to do as they do, I will occasionally profit from it. I will shake my head and continue to believe humans are doomed. One recycling centre employee told me a few months back that someone brought in a brand new unwanted gift. IIRC, it was a hedge trimmer. She asked where she should put it. He said...
in your garden shed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22796798