5bn phones to be fcuked into the bin this year

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.

PeaSea

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

ozmo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119773118#Comment_119773118

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119774126#Comment_119774126

Fun fact - only about 170,000 tons of gold has been mined throughout all history… its not that much

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119774469#Comment_119774469

and only 52,000 tons left to mine. After that it's asteroid mining time or go back to the old rotary dial phones

Flinty997

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

In fairness you might not use new features but they are there.

I haven't bought a bill phone in many years. Usually just get whatever sim free phone has the best bang for buck. But sometimes you need to get a new phone to get something like nfc or app support, security updates etc. For example my windows phone became obsolete. I do repair my phone's though, replacing batteries and ports etc where possible.

ozmo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119774576#Comment_119774576

Id say in future they will mine the dumps and wonder what we were thinking dumping all that copper, lead, lithium from batteries etc - there is probably a higher percentage of rare elements per square meter in the dumps than any mine.

riclad

I.d give a phone to a charity shop or else put it on adverts ie /free ,rather than throw it in the bin ,i use my 5 year old phone as a music player, or to send txts while my new phone is charging , you can still get a good price even for 4 year old iphones .

I pay 20 euro per month for data, free phone calls,txts, i can see no great advantage to the latest iphones unless you want to take 4k photos , hdr photos or else you are a professional photographer ,youtuber .

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119775445#Comment_119775445

Yes I think special mining machines will be developed to sift through them

circadian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119770832#Comment_119770832

**** insanity. Like, e-waste is bad enough as it is but this is madness. I see them all over the place. That **** leaking into the water table all over the country.

Mr. teddywinkles

Maybe more research investment into making most parts recyclable or easier maintenance rather than the latest chip or app would be a better use of resources. It all boil back to the manufacturer's fault more than the consumer.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119786007#Comment_119786007

Agreed, if TVs, cars, ovens all had the same crappy shelf life as phones people would be livid.

I’m finding the camera tech in particular has plateaued or at least the upgrades aren’t offering improvements I can see. There was a time when the tech was really racing ahead. They’ve been generally fairly unappealing upgrades in recent years, if you’ve a fairly high end phone.

Also I doubt I’m alone in having a drawer full of old phones that chronicle the evolution of technology. I wonder how many of them actually end up in waste streams. I suspect a huge % are in a drawer.