24 Jan
2007
24 Jan
'07
7 a.m.
I suspect that component-level repair will come back
again, maybe ten to
twenty years from now, as environmental issues of having to dispose of so much
old equipment makes an impact.
No, not a chance - at least for this reason, anyway. As stuff breaks,
and can be moved into the recycling stream without any hitches, all
the better. The recycling methods used today are incredibly efficient
at turning this junk back into raw resources, and will only just get
better.
At some point we'll probably see manufacturers
made to dispose of broken
consumer equipment at their own cost (similar to what's going to happen for
car manufacturers and end of life vehicles, at least in Europe). For a few
years they'll probably carry on just absorbing the cost of disposal, but at
some point it's likely going to be more cost-effective to design the products
to be more field-repairable in the first place.
I think that they will be wise to make the equipment more recyclable,
not repairable. There is money to be made in scrap, and once the big
manufacturers figure this out (some have already started), the
disposal costs will be less than the disposal earnings.
Of course it could take another route and
board/module/system swapping will be
done in the field, with repairs then carried out at base before re-issue, but
I certainly don't think manufacturers will be as inclined to build such
wasteful systems in a couple of decades' time.
This depot-level model is essentially how things have been working in
the business and industrial sector for a long, long, long time.
Environmental issues aside, certain far-east countries
will not want to take
western junk forever, and I can't imagine the sources of all this junk being
too keen to process it on their own soil. Sooner or later there will
(thankfully) be pressure on manufacturers to make their products be more
maintainable and last for longer.
Oh, the Far East countries will be taking scrap for as long as their
economy holds up. It is a resource. A very rich, plentiful resource.
No country turns a rich, plentiful resource away.
--
Will