It all started with the printer…
Our printer has had an error message for the last few months which we interpreted as it needed new ink, so off went Big Pop to buy new ink.
$60 later and I found myself sitting with the printer still not working tearing parts out and following various online how-to’s, none of which accomplished much at all other than covering my hands and the desk in ink… some even ended up on the kitchen bench somehow?
I finally found a helpful online spiel which explained the error message and what it meant; essentially we needed to replace the printer head which would cost more than the ink we just purchased. You can imagine the frustration in our household… All I wanted to do was print off my assignment for uni and what use is a printer that can’t even print?!
Since when were things made to break? It seems such a common occurrence today – especially when it comes to electronics. I’ve only just started to notice it, have you ever had something fall in a heap pretty much as soon as the warranty ran out, our car did.
I’ve been doing some research and it’s actually a business strategy, it’s called ‘planned obsolescence‘ Which essentially means that the product you are purchasing is designed to wear out or stop being useful after a predetermined period of time in order to make us buy more (and exhaust our landfill depots). There is no decent reason I can think of to justify planned obsolescence other than corporate greed and the need to make money. It is a waste of valuable resources and a waste of hard earned cash. (if you want to read more about this here is a great link with loads of info from the Sustainable Business Forum: http://sustainablebusinessforum.com/green24/51989/planned-obsolescence-products-designed-profit-not-planet)
Why can’t businesses just make things like they used to – things that actually last.
So that brings us to the big announcement – our household has committed to buy nothing new for twelve months starting this Monday the 29th of April 2013. Wish us luck and feel free to check up on us here (if anything it will make us more accountable to know people are reading!)
We will be making a follow up post shortly with rules etc… as we are still sussing all this out at the moment.
Until next time, peace, love and tacos!
Big Pop and Little Pop
Thriftypop 