This is the only idea I have that I can imagine might curb the onslaught of cheap/unrepairable products from being created.<p>When a manufacturer creates anything, before it's allowed to be sold to a member of the public, it gets registered with some global authority.<p>Whenever you dump something in the local landfill, the manufacturer is charged for their product being dumped, not the consumer.<p>The junk being dumped in landfills is not typically the consumer's fault.<p>We all buy products in good faith that they are made well and will hopefully last us a lifetime.<p>Why should we bear the brunt of disposing of some predatory manufacturer's built-to-fail product?<p>Thoughts?
I try fixing everything that I have ever bought before I am forced to throw it out, but some products are literally built to fail.<p>I bought a rechargeable electric razor once, worked for a few years, but eventually it wouldn't even run when plugged into the wall directly.<p>The reason? The power supply went through two incredibly cheap, soldered in, rechargeable batteries before it went to the motor.<p>I couldn't even circumvent the batteries, because the power that charged them was stronger than the power the motor drew.<p>So frustrating.
A few days ago, someone posted that where s/he lives you can get some money returning aluminum cans to the recycling center (or something like that). But the cans <i>must</i> not be crushed, because they must scan the barcode to identify the producer. The problem is that it is very inefficient to carry a lot of uncrushed cans, so this makes recycling more difficult.<p>Identifying the products in their way to the landfill may be difficult.