Pyramids of Waste

Found this really interesting documentary all about planned obsolescnce; the idea that objects are built with a shorter lifespan than they could be.

For example in the 1930's Dupont created new nylon tights that were virtually unbreakable. However, when the company realised they weren't going to sell as many, they told the manufacturers to make them more breakable.

After watching this it made me think about my ipod. At the moment it has a faulty headphone jack and when I went into the apple store they just told me to buy a new one.

Surely it is more wasteful in terms of energy to do this than to make replacement parts?
Also there is the cost of the transportation of new goods and also the waste removal of old ones.

Although the idea of planned obsolescence may have been used in the 30s in order to help recover from the great depression, it just doesn't seem right in today's society where we now are aware of the worlds finite resource; especially oil as it is a component in so many products.

I feel a relationship with this issue especially working in the home department of a department store. With electrical items the customer only has one year warranty against malfunction with the company and then the product has to go back to the retailer.

With pots and pans, some of them claim to have a lifetime guarantee but then the price rises considerably and so is out of reach of most people who come into the store. Paying over £80 for one large pan is getting close to some people's one week wages.

People with less money will therefore be less inclined to buy these more expensive products as it could put in jeopardy having money left till the next pay cheque.

This idea of short term and long term gain is something I have found interesting.

Also in terms of the waste removal we have scheme in store whereby if somebody buys a new electrical product they can bring in their old one and we will dispose of it for them. However I don't think many people are aware of this scheme and I feel sometimes it can be confusing knowing how to dispose of items; especially things like batteries.

Here is a link to the film. The only problem is there is no subtitles for the people who talk in other languages.

http://dotsub.com/view/aed3b8b2-1889-4df5-ae63-ad85f5572f27