We're so wasteful generally aren't we? And also do a poor job at recycling. I find it depressing whenever I go to the local recycling centre, and have to put things in the general waste bin, which I know is going to landfill. I mean how lazy is it that in this day and age, we're still simply burying waste, some of which will take 100's of years to degrade, and leach harardous substances into the ground (and water).
Here's an example: I have a Garmin sports watch, which I've owned for a number of years. It's got an internal battery, which has started to fail. I wanted to replace it so I asked Garmin how to do this. Their response - yes you guessed it, replace the watch. They flat out refused to send me a new battery. The thing is, this battery, although not technically user replaceable, can be changed. I've seen videos on how to do it. I would even pay Garmin to do it, rather than buy a new watch and have to throw this one out.
Completely agree Andrew. Your example about the watch pretty much sums it up. Everything these days is designed with a very limited lifespan in mind. Repairability is either an afterthought or purposeful avoided.
Another annoyance of mine is when manufacturers design something to be ‘green’, but make matters worse by using odd materials. For example… a sun cream tube I bought says it uses less plastic by using cardboard infused with plastic. Yes less plastic is used overall, but now the whole thing needs to be thrown away rather than recycled. Doesn’t seem to make much sense to me.