Our review of the movie “The Light Bulb Conspiracy” coincides with the resignation of Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computers.

Steve Jobs certainly deserves a lot of credit for his role in building up Apple as a technology leader; however as a company, Apple is very much a part of the system called ‘Planned Obsolescence” – a policy of deliberately designing a product that has a limited life span, so that consumers are forced to replace it after a period of time.

This is great for manufacturers as it keeps the economic machine chugging along with repeat sales, but what about the ecological and social costs of having to replace your Apple iPad1 with iPad2 when you were just beginning to get comfortable with the former?

Constant stream of e-waste due to Planned Obsolescence

Have you ever owned a product like a camera, a phone, a fan or printer that has konked out just outside the warranty period? Have you had the experience of taking something to a service centre, only to find out that it costs a bomb to repair it, and you’re forced to buy a new one?

Frequent replacement of products in a planet of finite resources means wasteful use of rare earths (like neobdymium, indium, lanthanum, tantalum, hafnium terbium, europium) and precious metals like gold and silver which make up the components of most electronic items. Toxic PVC and plastics are also extensively used.

As a result of a throwaway culture, tons of e-waste end up in developing countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, India, Nigeria and Ghana. These translate into air, land and water pollution from cadmium, mercury and lead along with other poisonous stuff. Open air burning creates toxic conditions for workers who are unprotected by lax environmental and health standards.

Do you remember how things in your parents’ days, seemed to last a long, long time? Why and when did that begin to change into a wasteful cycle?

The film,”The Light Bulb Conspiracy” by Cosima Dannoritzer, answers this question. It is peppered with brilliant archival footage, and sets the scene in Livermore, US with the world’s longest lasting lightbulb. It has been burning since 1901 and has ironically outlived the two webcams recording it!

A cartel called Phoebus consisting of lightbulb manufacturers in Europe, US and in Asia put an end to long lasting bulbs by wanting to control their production in the 1920s. They colluded to make lightbulbs that would not last more than 1000 hours, as they figured out that it would not be economically remunerative otherwise.

With the Great Depression, the timing for planned obsolescence couldn’t have been better. In 1932, Bernard London came out with a document called, “Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence.” He passionately advocated making it compulsory by law as a way out of economic depression though this wasn’t effected. It did manage to lay stronger foundations for mass production and consumerism which was taking off in a big way.

In 1954, Brook Stevens, an American industrial designer traveled all over the US to popularise the term and its perceived advantages. According to him, planned obsolescence was “Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary.”

From then on, the concept had become entrenched, as the idea of generating sales by reducing the time between repeat purchases made so much economic rationale for manufacturers. No wonder then that Printer’s Ink, an advertising magazine stated “an article that refuses to wear out is a tragedy of business.”

Watch the 53 minute movie, “The Light Bulb Conspiracy” here and we’ll look at what manufacturers and consumers need to do to prevent this system from breaking down- a system based on unsustainable use of natural resources, and one that is precariously predicated on ever increasing consumer credit.

What should manufacturers and consumers do?

Manufacturers: One fundamental and systemic change that needs to be brought about is by rethinking engineering design – a concept called “Cradle to Cradle” which is elucidated in the book of the same name by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

Braungart who appears in the movie explained the philosophy behind the book: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things during his visit to Singapore last year. We captured it in our blog Michael Braungart: Do Good Not Less Bad where he strongly believes that right product design can solve most problems – where components can and should be made non-toxically, and returned to the manufacturer for disassembly and reuse in the next upgrade.

In our interview with Janet Unruh, author of the book, “Recycle Everything, Why We Must, How We Can” she shows how to operationalise this concept, through a practical model for manufacturers, which is remunerative at the same time.

The electrical and electronics industry needs to change from a ‘selling’ to a ‘leasing’ model. Most of the time, we as consumers don’t need to ‘own’ a gadget. We only need to ‘hire’ the services of a TV, a cell phone, a washing machine and so on for a few years – after which it can go back to the company. The company should then reassemble it, incorporating the latest innovations. This would vastly reduce the demand for new materials and the problem of e-waste.

Consumers: We need to voice our concerns to manufacturers, and write in to company managements, to government and to mainstream media that this system is flawed, and that we demand for the sake of a sustainable planet, longer lasting products made with quality components, with strong manufacturer take-back schemes.

Most importantly, we must resist our urge to go in for the latest fad or design, and stay off the treadmill of rapid product upgrades.

Further links you may be interested in:

For Singapore based consumers:

The ideal situation would be for companies to take back their products and reuse the components, but during the transition, recyling rates can be enhanced. Check out these resources for recycling in Singapore:

Recycling Point Dot Com is a private intiative to recycle both domestic and office waste. See here for the list of recyclables

The Singapore Environment Council (SEC) provides a list of recycling options for Nokia and Motorola phones, and HP ink cartridges.

Visit National Environment Agency‘s website  for a list of local dealers who collect e-waste.

EWTT: Annie Leonard: The Story of Electronics

The Story of Stuff.com : An excellent animation by Annie Leonard on our wasteful materials economy

YouTube: Post Carbon Institute : Who killed Economic Growth?

YouTube: Re-thinking Progress: The Circular Economy

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Annie Leonard, creator of a series of informative animations, The Story of Stuff, The Story of Bottled Water, The Story of Cosmetics and The Story of Cap & Trade has just released the latest one taking the electronics industry to task:  The Story of Electronics. It shows the negative impact of the “designing for the dump” mentionality that exposes workers to toxic inputs, and people in developing countries like Nigeria and India to toxic e-waste.

Good Magazine came out with an interesting infographic recently.  E-waste is piling up at an incredible 40 million tons a year. You may click here for a larger picture.

According to the book written by Annie Leonard “The Story of Stuff” “e-waste is increasing three times faster than other municipal waste and is packed with hazardous metals and chemicals.  The Electronics Take Back Coalition says the 5 common sources and reasons for e-waste are cell phone upgrades, digital TV conversions, software upgrades, batteries and disposable printers.

Annie Leonard’s fervent plea in the Huffington Post is for the Electronics Industry to “Make ‘Em Safe, Make ‘Em Last, Take ‘Em Back. She says:

“In the U.S. we throw away about 400 million electronic gadgets each year — more than one per person. Only about 20 percent of e-waste in the U.S. is collected for recycling; the rest goes to landfills and incinerators where the toxics leach out to contaminate our air, water and communities.

Investigations have found that 50 to 80 percent of this stuff is shipped overseas to Asia and Africa where it is broken apart by workers to extract the small bits of valuable metals. In addition to those pieces of gold and copper, today’s electronics routinely contain toxic chemicals like lead, mercury, PVC, chlorine, and bromines that end up poisoning workers and their communities in the importing country.”

She makes a call for “a green ‘race to the top’ where designers compete to make long-lasting, toxic-free products that are fully and easily recyclable.”  Manufacturers should design for disassembly right at the outset, so they can put in quality materials, which will come back to them at the end-of-life of a product.

This is increasingly important with the impending materials crisis which has provoked countries like China to impose restrictions on exports of rare earths, used heavily in the electronics industry. The mining of some metals like Coltan is deeply intertwined with civil conflict in the Congo Basin.  With that kind of far reaching impact that mining of metals for electronic products has, the electronics industry should take greater responsibility towards recycling and conserving of scarce resources.

We don’t have to be silent consumers. There are a lot of suggestions on the “What You Can Do” section of the Story of Electronics website, but most of the agencies mentioned relate to the US.

If you’re buying electronics, support manufacturers who are rated higher in Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics.

We can stick with our gadgets a little longer without rushing out for the latest designs.

Further links you may be interested in:

EWTT:  Michael Braungart: Do Good, Not Less Bad (On Cradle-to-Cradle design)
EWTT:  Janet Unruh: Recycle Everything : Why We Must, How We Can
Urban Mining: China considering rare earths strategic reserves

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