Have you seen The Story of Stuff? It is a powerful website with a very simple message about reducing our consumption. One part that struck me the most is when Annie Leonard talks about how obsolescence is purposely inserted into the design of products so that they break quickly and you have to buy a new one within a few years. Remember your grand-mother's blender that would not break, or that heavy
fridge that lasted forever? Soon corporations realized that it was not a good long term strategy to build products to last, they needed their customers to keep buying. There needed to be some weaker parts inserted into the design to make the product break after a set number of years, thereby re-starting the consumption wheel. Plastic plays that role... The part that breaks first is almost always plastic. Cars used to be made of steel. You could fix the bumper with a hammer if you got into an accident. Not anymore. Now most car parts are made of plastic, so you have to replace the whole part with a new one. Can't fix it with a hammer anymore. We recently bought a little metal pedal tractor for our son. We thought that because it is made of metal it would last a long time. Not so... there was just two tiny pieces of the whole tractor that were made of plastic and they arrived already broken. We had to call the company for a replacement. There, right in front of our eyes, the proof that obsolescence had been planted into this toy. So discouraging.
- Chantal
