This is has been somewhat inspired by Dr. Guy’s blog “Whatever Happened to Diagnostics”. In it, Doc writes about his dismay at the attitude his workplace has to fixing problems. They would rather wipe the slate clean and start again, which can take more time and cause further problems while not addressing the original problem to begin with. It sounds like a lazy, slip-shod way of operating, but it is happening everywhere.
This got me thinking. Usually when this happens, I try to move on and not concern myself with the unnecessary things such as thought, instead concentrating on more important activities like breathing and staying upright. But this time, the thought wouldn’t leave me alone.
But seriously, what got me thinking about this was that I was walking home from the local shops and noticed a fair amount of ‘rubbish’ lined up on the footpaths outside a number of residences. The ‘rubbish’ included a microwave, a two-burner gas barbecue (without the gas bottle), some older furniture items that only looked to be out of date as opposed to scrappy or unusable, bags of clothes, a television, a perfectly usable clothes rack, as well as other bits and pieces. A lot of these items could have been passed on to charity organisations or such who I believed would and do gladly pick up such items free of charge.
However, upon doing a little research, I found even the charities won’t take things like microwaves, televisions or any other electric appliances unless they know these are in working condition. The reason is because they don’t or no longer have the capacity or staff to repair broken equipment.
This wasn’t always the case. I remember years ago, when I first moved out of home into a place of my own, I bought my first fridge at a thrift shop. I purchased it under the condition I understood it was rescued off the side of the road and repaired by a ‘qualified’ repairman working for the shop. It came with a limited warranty, mainly due to the compressor in it being relatively new. That fridge served me well for quite a number of years until it broke down. While I could probably have had it fixed, finances meant I was able to get something newer while trading the old one in. With repairs, I would imagine that old fridge is still running and keeping someone else’s beer chilly.
The store I bought my first fridge at had a variety of second-hand appliances, everything from toasters and electric mixers to radios and stereo units. Most of these items were given to the shop in need of some repair. Trained hands took them to pieces, found whatever problems they had, repaired them, put them back together and carried them out on to the shop floor where young people such as myself could buy their first curling wand, for instance (not that I’ve ever used a curling wand but if I did, I know I could have gotten a second-hand one quite easily).
These days, it seems to be easier and, unfortunately, cheaper to simply throw out the old and replace it with a new version. For instance, our video player recently wouldn’t eject. This player was a good Sony player that worked well, when we used it. We had become fans of DVD’s but having the video player was great as a backup. I took it to a local repair man who I’d used once before to fix a stereo amp for me. He took one look at it and told me to forget about it. Without opening the shell, he said it would cost me more money and he more time than it was worth and I’d be better off getting rid of it. I took the player back home, slipped it under the television cabinet and told my wife the story. We were both a little sad nothing could be done to rescue it and couldn’t believe it was irreparable. The way I see it is it could be repaired if the companies building these things could be bothered making spare parts for it. The fact is, the companies in question would lose too much money making parts so they don’t even bother.
This even extends to automobiles. Did you know in Japan, for instance, the older your car is, the more duty you must pay in the form of registration, licensing and road taxes? The Japanese market place is flooded with second-hand cars under 5 years old and with low mileage because the owners have traded up to a new model to save money. The prices are staggeringly cheap, compared to the Australian market place, for instance. And there are no spare parts or junk yards as most of the cars that don’t make it either into the hands of new owners or overseas are completely scrapped, with the scrap metal being used to make… (drum roll, please) new cars.
Maybe second-hand or used goods are not for everyone. But then, maybe if we could actually have our three year old television or our fourteen month old microwave repaired when it breaks down the day after our warranty is up, we wouldn’t be so quick to leave them on our sidewalks to be collected and thrown into landfill. I keep hearing about how the world’s resources are slowly being depleted and all sorts of advice on how to recycle normal household waste. Yet for items such as these, the word ‘repair’ has seemingly disappeared from manufacturer vocabulary.
I won’t pretend I have any real solutions, with the exception of a few vaguely ridiculous ones (such as turning old microwaves into fish tanks, for instance – see I told you my ideas were ridiculous). But I do wonder where this is leading. Everything these days seems to be so much more disposable and this includes relationships, friendships and responsibilities. It has me wondering what this will mean for my young nephews and nieces and for the children about to be born to some of our lovely JU ladies. Is this heralding in an age where everything is disposable? I hope not but it does make me wonder.