🚀 go-pugleaf

Alan Liefting wrote:
> 
> Copied to these newsgroups for comment.

"Catalyst" on ABC has a program about the disposal of equipment.

> 
> I am an electronics service technician who has worked in the industry
> for 20 years.  I have seen a number of changes over that time.  I am
> also a concerned environmentalist.
> 
> As a technician my job is made more difficult for reasons I will
> outline.  The cost of electronics consumer items which I service has
> reduced over the years as a result of removal of tariffs, mass
> production and globalised trade especially with countries which have
> lower labour rates.  These same countries have poor environmental and
> social protection policies.  Since the consumer products are cheap to
> buy they are less likely to repaired when they fail.  Manufacturers are
> becoming more reluctant to supply replacement spare parts for the
> servicing industry.  If parts are available they tend to be quite
> expensive.  Quite often this makes the goods uneconomic to repair.
> Manufacturers are also closing some of their authorised service centres
> for the products.  This makes it more difficult for the customers to
> have the goods repaired.  Recently I discovered that at least one New
> Zealand division of a major electronics company has shifted its spare
> parts supply warehouse to Australia.  As an aside the parts currently in
> the warehouse were discarded since it was uneconomic to ship them to
> Australia.  I have a suspicion that this may cause more difficulties for
> the electronic servicing trade.  I am sure it would take the service out
> of the electronics service industry.
> 
> As far as I can tell there is no lobby group for electrical and
> electronics servicing trade.
> 
> My view is that the manufacturers of a electrical equipment would prefer
> to supply a replacement item rather than have a faulty item repaired.
> They do this because it makes sound economic sense.  There is more money
> to be made in supplying a $200 appliance than in supplying a $10
> replacement spare part.  There is of course higher environmental costs
> in discarding the appliance rather than having a repaired.  Some
> appliances are built rather shoddily.  They have their own in-built
> obsolecence.  They are built to a price and the price is low.  And of
> course you get what you play for.  As a technician I quite often see a
> number of manufacturing techniques that do actually shorten the lifetime
> of appliance.
> 
> Electrical, electronic and computer equipment is an ideal candidate for
> "Extended Producer Responsibility".  This is where the manufacturer is
> responsible for the correct recycling of product at the end of its
> lifetime.  Evidence from other countries suggests that manufacturers
> will only take serious responsibility for recycling of the products if
> they are forced to do so by government legislation.  Manufacturers are
> foisting the disposal of the products onto the end-user.  This is an
> ideal arrangement for them since there is no costs to them.  The
> end-user has difficulty in finding out how to dispose of this
> equipment.  Local government agencies are avoiding the issue.  With the
> current regime the environment, the rate player and the taxpayer are for
> disposal.  The EU is becoming serious about disposal of electrical
> goods.  The US, who tend to lack somewhat on enacting environmental
> legislation especially if it in impinges on economic growth, are also
> addressing the issue of disposal of electrical goods.  However just as
> some countries are used as a cheap labour source by the so-called first
> world countries they are also used as a dumping ground for discarded
> equipment.  The cause of the poor environmental standards their country
> is being polluted as a result of our affluence and weak environmental
> laws.  I have anecdotal evidence of faulty electronics equipment and
> scrap being sent to countries such as the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
> 
> Electrical, electronic and computer equipment contains all manner of
> difficult to recycle substances.  Some of the materials are hazardous.
> Discarded equipment should be treated as hazardous goods.  It is high
> time to control this increasingly significant portion of the waste
> stream.
> 
> Alan Liefting
> 78 Flockton Street
> St Albans
> Christchurch
> NEW ZEALAND
> 
> Telephone:  (03)385-3830


-- 

Regards
David Milne