5bn phones to be fcuked into the bin this year

Ubbquittious

This is mad. Almost a phone for every person on the planet every two years and a good chunk of those people don't even have phones.

People now don't see any problem with spending €700 on a phone, even 1000+. In the early 2000's if you spend more than a few on a phone it was seen as the height of excess and even then the phone could be expected to easily last 5 or 6 years. Then Apple came in with their non-user-replaceable batteries and quality nosedived. My own phone (a cheap nokia smartphone) is on its last legs after only about a year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63245150

buried

Yeah but these yokes are 'smartphones' now. You gotta pay for the 'smart' brand. You gotta pay for the bestest camera to do the bestest instasham story. You gotta pay for the best Lithium battery that's making the bestest and biggest mining environmental disaster over in South America, Africa or some other place that people do not give a $hit about.

SEPT 23 1989

lithium mining

It makes 19th century coal mining look civilised

but anyway shiny new phones and eco cars

Senature

Quite proud of my phone being over 5 years old. Has seen better days but works perfectly. Will be replaced by a second hand phone when the time comes as a slightly more environmentally friendly option.

Graces7

Mine is a small payg from Tesco. Just a simple phone. Under E20 and lasts well.

kirk.

Think I'll start taking action myself on waste

The whole situation with plastic and shiny new equipment is bonkers

I fired 3 containers into the bin a load of plastic just to house coleslaw costing a euro each when it can easily be made , milk cartons are crazy we should be dispensing milk into container's

Greyfox

It's down to people falling for the free upgrade con.. a con as its really enter a 2 year contract and pay a lot more for a phone. Even the latest Samsung/iPhones still actually last 3/4 years but the marketing people are good at telling us we need something new and shiny with a slightly better camera.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768566#Comment_119768566

Agreeing totally. I grew up with milk in glass bottles that were used and reused. In the days before plastic containers existed. The waste now....

ozmo

Where best to send the ewaste though to make sure its properly recycled. I hear so many horror stories of it just being shipped to a field in some third world country where it’s burned openly to extract the easy bits.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768602#Comment_119768602

There are plenty of phones that won't last that long. I've had a good few phones die because the usb port packs up and it's on it's own little flexible circuit board. It would be worth sourcing a new circuit board or attempting to replace the connector but at this stage there are usually several other things wrong with the phone or about to go wrong.

Now they are pushing phones with flexible screens just to add another moving/wearing component that will break and keep people on the upgrade treadmill.

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768613#Comment_119768613

So true I grew up on glass milk bottles in the UK

We've "progressed" to plastic

ewaste is a worldwide disgrace to put it mildly.

But it’s not going to be 5bn phones all binned in unison the moment apple or Samsung open the doors when a new product launches. That would be ludicrous & if that happened every year we’d all be fcuked long ago.

Obviously that doesn’t happen anyway cos most people will try and sell the phone, if they’ve the patience. Then there’s the likes of CeX for the less patient but willing to get 30-40% less for their phone.

In fact the larger cause of e waste is manufacturers fault. Charging customers absolutely ridiculous prices to repair. Apple for example charges €280~ to repair the screen for my iPhone 12 if I smash it. Now on adverts I can buy a used (including refurbished) for circa €450. under €200 more than repairing my phone, so I’m inpatient or can’t be without a phone so I decide, feck it I’ll just buy another.

Or for another few quid I could upgrade to an iPhone 13, either way, phone in the bin. It’s broken I can’t sell it and apple make it nearly impossible to buy OEM replacement parts. Could use a third party screen, but, get this, now if you do that.. the phone never stops telling you about it!

There’s so many fixable things that manufactures make difficult or we just feel are not worth doing that ewaste has become the easy answer.

like my car is 2003, nearly 20. I paid €500. The clutch went recently, just under that cost to replace it. I was being told by many just to scrap it.. why!? A perfectly fine car, with not a thing but a clutch gone, but scrap it cos it’s old and the “sale value” is not worth fixing it. But it’s no problem to have it scrapped when it functions perfect, just cos something happened and it’s old.

So it’s caused by numerous factors in my opinion, not just limited to folks who want shiny new things. Manufacturers & our own attitudes towards perceived value & how we have become accustomed to break, bin, replace. I suppose it might be due, at least in part, to the incredible wealth almost all of us experience in modern times compared to our parents/grandparents & how “consumable” things have gotten.

I suppose we’re more than just consumers while we shop— the products we buy are now almost entirely consumable. To be used (and potentially abused), just to be binned and replaced with a new shiny thing when it’s more convenient.

I’ve always seen my grandad for example capable to fix anything. But it’s not some mad gift he has it’s how life was for him. If something broke you fixed it or you didn’t have it. That was it. Ewaste is a problem born of the shift from that mindset, to as I said, technology becoming a consumable product & also manufacturers fencing off access to parts, documents and etc to repair things, either ourselves, or independent repair shops.

But what’s hilarious to me, honestly, is Apple for example will operate here no problem, but refuses to open any proper Apple Stores with the “Genius Bar”. One easy solution that wouldn’t even infringe on their refusal to help us help ourselves, but that’s even too much. I find that personally a glaring insight into how none of them can be bothered to address the Ewaste problem they add to daily.

In all there’s no crazy ewaste problem born simply from yearly phone cycles or bill pay contracts, they don’t help but they have other cynical plans in mind when they’re being discussed at board meetings, ewaste I doubt even comes to mind when they’re foaming at the mouth about all the money they’ll make.

kirk.

That's definitely a big issue appliance and electronic repair and upgrade

They make it uneconomic or difficult to repair stuff

There was talk of regulation I this area can't remember the details

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768674#Comment_119768674

It drives me ...... I cut the tops off the plastic milk containers and use them for plantpots... lol...They become mini greenhouses. I think they changed as it cost less to throw away than to wash etc? With other things I buy the large size, decant and freeze. reuse instead of buying freezer containers etc. I know; a drop in a huge ocean.

Ubbquittious

Ahh jaysus the stench offa that must be something desperate altogether

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768633#Comment_119768633

adgib

Used to do the phone upgrade until about 4 years ago, go for refurbished now, find the back market excellent

kirk.

People in power and not in power are just driven by need and want it's human nature

Dunno is there a way out of this

xxxxxxl

I replace the phone when the partner drops theirs breaks the screen. Or wait for the battery to die. This one is about 5 years old. Partners currently has ... Broken screen. Kind of recycling phone has had it's life.

bad2thebone

The best lasting thing I bought recently was a Stanley flask. Seen it in a store. It was winking at me, saying to me you know you want it. And I gave in.

But I never picked up a phone and felt quality, or looked at it and said this is something that's going to be with me for life.

Stays hot until the last drop.

But that green Stanley flask, just the color of it, the noise it makes when you open the cap. Good steel, tap it with your knuckles and that sound . Absolute quality. And their metal lunch box I'm buying next.

That rubbish that's from China is just landfill in a year or two.

I love buying good the old reliable.

They still make them like they used to.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768747#Comment_119768747

I really wonder what the endgame of this system is

There might come a day when there are enough houses for everyone, cheaply built or 3D printed from sustainable materials

No more utility bills because said houses all generate enough renewable power and keep the required amount of heat in

Our cars could be built so well that they dont need replacing or incur high running costs

Phones could in theory be made to last many decades using standard and easily replaceable parts.

but if all the above happens you can be sure they'll come up with some bloody thing to keep the economic pressure on people and to continue making busy fools of the majority of the population like they do now. There will be a new thing for people to senselessly squander their earnings on and they'll be continuously pressured by society and possibly by the government to do so.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768769#Comment_119768769

money. make things seem consumable and awkward/expensive to repair and you sell more upgrades and replacements.

It’s always money. As for politicians they’re in it for the money too, the more the manufacturers make, the more tax they pay, now government are happy.

The only one losing is the consumer & the planet.

One thing I forgot to mention in my post actually that’s a massive contributor to ewaste, those ridiculous YouTube channels where all they do is destroy technology (usually the most expensive brand new things) in stupid ways. “Throwing an iPhone into lava, will it SURVIVE???????”. Wasters.

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768602#Comment_119768602

That's a good point too

I actually grew up believing a Mars a day helped me work rest and play

erlichbachman

Do you mean disposed of in the waste?

AndrewJRenko

Gerry McGovern is Ireland’s leading authority on digital waste

https://twitter.com/gerrymcgovern/status/1581673128370917377?s=46&t=-RC5ZLRiId2k3UD6PrR-EA

Its not just hardware causing problems. If we’re backing up every useless photo we take onto the cloud, we’re wasting vast amounts of network and storage resources for something that we’re never going to look at again.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769834#Comment_119769834

They have to replace entire communication networks with shiny new backdoor'd huawei equipment every couple of years to keep it going

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768602#Comment_119768602

This annoys me too. People say so often " I'm due an upgrade", and they believe that they're getting a subsidised phone from the networks and don't work out the cost of the contract versus buying a phone themselves and getting sim free rolling 30 day contract with provider of choice.

Your phone was subsidised back in the days of Nokia and Sony Ericsson as they were cheap but smart phones are not subsidised, just given out on Hire Purchase arrangements.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769504#Comment_119769504

No.

Fcuked into the bin.

Thelonious Monk

Pretty sure I've never bought a new phone. Had to get one recently and just got a second hand one online with a small crack in screen. There are enough phones on the planet to last us years if we just used the same ones and got tougher on the producers with their built in obsolescence.

Ray Palmer

A lot of people here aren't aware of the effects tax breaks for companies play the biggest part here and that is who is targeted with 2 year upgrade. You can write off a phone every 2 years. I have one of the latest phones and it cost me a lot less as a business expense plus they made a mistake on pricing so it cost me even less.

One place I worked over 200 members of staff all get new phones every 2 years.

Brid Hegarty

Got my first hand-me-down iPhone (iPhone 5) in 2018. Worked grand until I was coerced onto a newer model due to needing a work app that the iOS software didn't support. Even at that I moved onto an hand-me-down iPhone 8 from a sibling.

gary550

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769918#Comment_119769918

If you switch carriers/look for deals when your contract is up I can guarantee most of the time you will save money vs keeping an older phone going or buying a new one and running a sim free contract/payg if you're looking for a phone in a higher price range.

I switched from vodafone business in July after my contract with vodafone was up. Vodafone wouldn't upgrade to anything worthwhile and still wanted to charge me €67 a month to keep an old phone going.

Switched to three business who gave me a new iphone 13 for €9.99 upfront cost and it works out at around €50 a month or so for 2 years. Total cost for a 2 year contract is around €1200. In July when I started that a new iphone 13 was €950 I think and is still €929 today even though it has been superseded.

Deduct the purchase price there is nowhere on earth I'd have gotten 2 years mobiling for €200 if I had of just bought the phone outright so financially it was a no brainer.

Even moving to a payg plan and keeping my old phone for the plan I needed it was all still in the €30/40 a month range with no new phone!

I hate mindless consumerism, and wanted to keep my old iphone xs as it was still mint but of all my options that made the least sense.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058268232/5bn-phones-to-be-fcuked-into-the-bin-this-year

yup, this is just disturbing stuff, this is just wrecking the planet, think ive only bought one phone in the last 15 years or so, yet i still have 4/5 phones here, i generally use second hand phones, have done so for years, we cant keep doing this to the planet!

daheff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768674#Comment_119768674

We could have progressed to recyclable plastic (PET type) bottles. The problem is its not as appealing.

Glass bottles stopped due to the cost and fact the bottles broke often.

Personally I'd love to go back to phones that you could replace the battery packs in (like the old HTC phones- whatever happened to HTC?).

Phone companies (apple -looking your way specifically) have made it so new software updates tend to slow down older phones to the point where it becomes a pain to use....or stop supporting older models with newer OS...which you need to run apps (google!).

erlichbachman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119769929#Comment_119769929

Where are these bins, and who exactly is doing the fcuking?

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119770626#Comment_119770626

Ya I can see glass as a problem , realistically probably wasn't thinking it was a solution

What's PET plastic haven't heard of it

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119770630#Comment_119770630

All over the world and most of the phone-owning population

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119770740#Comment_119770740

Transparent plastic bottle plastic for the most part. Though it does not need to be transparent and can be used for other things.

Here is a nice page with info on different types of plastic

https://help.prusa3d.com/materials

ozmo

See they are trying ban those new disposable vape devices - they contain a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery as powerful as some phones plus electronics - yet are sold as single use - disposable - often in the bin or on the street.

I'm old enough to remember glass Coca Cola bottles, bringing them back to the shop to get money back on them, otherwise no-one would have returned the empties. Also leaving the empty milk bottles out for the milkman to collect. Then in the 70s plastic became the way of saving us from making glass bottles, plastic was seen as being much more environmentally friendly.

BrianD3

I grudgingly got my first basic smartphone in 2017 as needed it for a work related app, phone lasted 4 years until I got water into the microphone port. Now I have another Samsung which cost about 150 quid sim free. Has fine battery life.

Personally, I resent having to use a smartphone for two factor authentication when buying online etc. Maybe I don't strictly have to but I'm not aware of alternative methods.

But leaving aside any planned obsolescence or being steered to "upgrade" by corporations, people are idiots who want new shiny stuff. I know plenty of people who have convinced themselves that a car more than 3 years old is about to become a rusty, unreliable moneypit and they'll end up "throwing good money after bad" and "dem modern yokes aren't designed to last" when in fact modern cars last extremely well

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119771101#Comment_119771101

A much more balanced view than the earlier post... I honestly never in all my years remember a broken milk bottle.. We used crates, and took care, and the only damage ever was the birds pecking through the cardboard tops to steal the cream,, We had special lids to stop that! More likely it was the need for washing the bottles that made them irksome,, But one of the most musical sounds of my earlier years was the chinking of milk bottles as the milkman did his rounds...

Ubbquittious

There is about 28-34 milligrams of gold in each phone. So at least 148 tons of the stuff in the 800,000 tons worth of phones being fcuked in the bin.

con___manx1

I dont understand people getting upgrades. Your paying for that upgrade.

I bought an honor phone that was unlocked for 250 euro a couple of years ago. I have tesco mobile that i top up 15 quid every 28 days.

Anyone on 40 or 50 quid contract needs their head examined. I broke the screen on this phone aswell. I bought a new screen from ebay and watched a vid on YouTube that showed me how to fix it. Ill keep it until it packs it in or i loose it.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119773211#Comment_119773211

40 is madness. Good sim only plans to be had for a tenner

Strumms

Like a lot of electronics, they are simply not manufactured to last these days. So they charge you a lot of money for something that will not be working properly after 3 years. That’s electronics and mobiles for you… my last iPad I got about 5 or 6 years out of before that gave up the ghost.

but a phone , I’ve never had one last longer then 3 years, regardless as to high end, low end or mid end… if the phone doesn’t stop working properly the battery does. And none of us will be tech savvy enough to determine if it’s the battery or the phone unless we have another phone that will take the same battery..

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119771441#Comment_119771441

And at post- war infant/junior school in the Uk every child got a 1/3 pint of milk at playtime in school free. Each class had a Milk Monitor in charge of eg straws.. Wee bottles... Ah memories!

Mundo7976

I dont get the incessant need to "upgrade" every time it becomes available. I've my current phone almost 4 years and it still does everything the new €1400 iPhone does, it was top of the range at the time and waited until it was on offer before buying. & I haven't had a contract in at least 6 years. Its called looking after your stuff. I hate waste & idiotic consumerism

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119773588#Comment_119773588

Good for you!

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119773588#Comment_119773588

I don't know why people don't get bored/tired of upgrading. Back in the early 2000s there was a significant leap in functionality if you got a different phone and you could try different form factor, with/without keyboard. Now your only choice is another rectangle that spies on you even more

Sono Topolino

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768602#Comment_119768602

That is part of it. I had to explain to a few of my family members that the "free upgrade" actually is a rip off and that switching to a sim-only plan is far more cost-effective.

I got a 5-g ready phone in 2020 in the hope that it would be future-proof. Two years later, the battery needs to be recharged 3 times a day and I cannot replace it out. Otherwise the phone works perfectly fine. I'm kicking myself for not getting a Fairphone with a replaceable battery, but I fell for the 5G is the future hype (shame on me).

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119774077#Comment_119774077

I think I will buy one of those next when i fcuk my existing phone in the bin, gold an all. Had a FP2 for a while and quickly sold it as it wouldnt run Sailfish OS properly. Hopefully the newer ones are better