Disposing of the Disposable Mentality
By Shawn Dell Joyce
“Reduce, reuse and recycle” is the new mantra, but we also must add “rethink” and examine our disposable mentality.
The “disposable mentality” of cheap goods and lots of them has dictated American consumerism for the past 20 years. Consumer goods are produced so cheaply that it is often less expensive to buy new things than have broken things fixed. A prime example: computer printers. Many printers cost less than the ink cartridges they contain. This encourages people to buy new printers instead of replacing the ink cartridges.
As a result, we see office equipment, appliances, televisions, outdated VCRs and other consumer goods dotting the curbsides. These perfectly usable consumer goods clog up our landfills and waste our resources. Some countries are stopping this disposable deluge by requiring that consumer products be designed for reuse and disassembly.
In 2001, Japan’s appliance-recycling law took effect. It prohibits the disposing of major appliances, such as televisions, air conditioners and washing machines. Instead, consumers pay fees to recycling firms to disassemble the products. The result has been consumer pressure on manufacturers to build easily recyclable appliances.
The European Union requires manufacturers to pay for recycling electronic equipment and disposing of toxins. That has slowed the rate of planned obsolescence in consumer goods, such as trendy cell phones that seem to need replacing every year. Some manufacturers, including Nokia, are designing their phones to be easily disassembled and reused.
Some American companies are finding that it is cheaper to accept back used consumer goods and recycle them than to buy raw materials. Airline companies, such as Boeing, are finding that it is cheaper to recycle used jets than to mine as much aluminum as they contain.
Remanufacturing is another industrial trend that is beginning to catch hold in the U.S.
Caterpillar, a heavy-equipment manufacturer, accepts back its spent diesel engines and carefully disassembles each one preserving the parts. The engines are rebuilt, with broken and worn parts replaced. That results in new engines and higher profits for the company.
Some new companies and nonprofits are emerging in the reuse of building materials. As lumber, piping and glass become more expensive, it becomes more profitable to reuse parts of buildings than to demolish whole structures, as was common practice. Habitat for Humanity has set up several “ReStores” around the country, where deconstructed building parts are available at low costs.
Want to change the disposable mindset in your household?
—Don’t buy anything unless you really need it. Can you make do without it? If not, can you find it used at a garage sale, through Craigslist or The Freecycle Network or borrow it from a friend?
—Pre-cycle! Purchase items with the least amount of packaging. Buy items that can be recycled, such as Tom’s toothpaste, the only toothpaste tube that can be recycled.
—Guerilla recycle! Take apart the layers of pet food bags, and discard the plastic inner liners. More than a pound of paper can be recycled from one pet food bag!
—Items in packaging that combines paper with metal or plastic — such as juice boxes, milk cartons, paper bags lined with foil, and Bubble Wrap mailers — are all un-recyclable.
—Ask manufacturers to take back products that are spent. For example, most printer ink cartridges can be returned for a discount; why can’t printers be returned, as well?
Shawn can be reached at Shawn@zestoforange.com
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