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Child Item

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

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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

[Deleted User]

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.

[Deleted User]

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

[Deleted User]

Do you mean disposed of in the waste?

[Deleted User]

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.