More and more, consumers are treating electronics such as cellphones as disposable, and companies are encouraging this attitude. Instead of creating quality items that could last for years, many businesses prompt customers to spend more money by providing cheap items that won't last long.
That attitude seems to have reached a peak with a disturbing example showcased in a recent Reddit thread.
What's happening?
The post appeared in r/Anticonsumption, a subreddit dedicated to spending less money and creating less trash. The all-caps, one-word title was: "WHY?!"
The attached image shows an article from 9to5Mac, titled: "AT&T will now let you upgrade your phone three times a year (for a fee)." It explains the new "Next Up Anytime" program, which charges users a monthly fee of an additional $10 per month for the privilege of trading in their old phones every four months on average.
"I honestly can't even imagine," said one commenter.
Why is this wasteful policy important?
This program is just the latest manifestation of a troubling trend known as planned obsolescence. Instead of making their products to last, some companies bet that they can force consumers to spend more money by making them buy new replacements and updates as often as possible.
In the case of Next Up Anytime, buyers will be spending an extra $120 per year that they don't need to spend, just to keep up with trends and get the latest phone.
If enough people sign up, phone companies will have an incentive to release an ever-increasing number of phones that only have to perform for a few months, and there is no reason those phones have to be better than the previous ones.
Not only is this a drain on buyers' bank accounts, it creates mountains of trash. Specifically, the discarded phones are e-waste, full of toxic chemicals and metals that can pollute the environment.
All the resources and energy that go into manufacturing the phones are wasted, over and over — and electronics are full of expensive components and rare metals.
Is AT&T doing anything about this?
According to AT&T, its reuse programs are designed to minimize the amount of waste going to the landfill. By 2030, it aims to reduce waste by 30% compared to 2019. "AT&T is committed to reducing, reusing, and recycling waste in our operations and responsibly handling the waste we produce," the company says on its website.
However, diverting a third of the waste it produces seems meaningless if the company is tripling the cellphone e-waste it produces, as this new deal threatens to do.
What's being done about e-waste more broadly?
Instead of participating in wasteful schemes like this one, responsible cellphone users can make their devices last as long as possible. At the end of your phone's life, instead of throwing it away, donate it to a program like Operation Shoebox, which supplies phones to U.S. soldiers.
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