I was struck by a comment made by the repairman of my old but reliable clothes dryer. The unit had come with the house so neither my wife or I had any idea how old the dryer was. When he saw it, he gave us one of those whistles reserved for “They don’t make these anymore . I haven’t seen one of these in years.”
While the dryer repair bill was thankfully small, he mentioned that the appliance business has radically changed in the last 10 years where the intentional life of a major appliance has shrunk in half from 16 years to 8 years. That’s a 50% reduction in lifespan of a major piece of home equipment.
What are the implications of this?
- The quality of the work and materials changes radically, going from built to last to built to trash
- The service component shifts from repair to disposal
- The infusion of the latest componentry and fancy features accelerates, sometimes before its ready
- Our landfills are going to explode, if they haven’t already
- The market for recycling industries opportunity
- Increased natural resource pressures
- Others?
So what other industries are we seeing such rapid acceleration to the trash can?