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Planned obsolescence is an industrial and market phenomenon in capitalist countries that emerged in 1930

Edited and resized image by Sascha Pohflepp, Sea of ​​phones, is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Scheduled obsolescence, also called planned obsolescence, is a technique used by manufacturers to force you to buy new products, even if the ones you already have are in perfect working condition. It consists of producing items already establishing the end of their useful life. This concept emerged between 1929 and 1930, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, and aimed to encourage a market model based on mass production and consumption, in order to recover the countries' economy at that period - something similar to what happens in the today, when credit is facilitated and governments encourage consumption. An emblematic case of this practice was the formation of the Phoebus Cartel, which, headquartered in Geneva, had the participation of the main lamp manufacturers in Europe and the United States and proposed a reduction in costs and life expectancy of 2.5 thousand lamps. hours to a thousand hours.

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One of the voices that alerts to the dangers of this practice is the Spanish businessman Benito Muros, founder of the company OEP Electrics and the movement Without Programmed Obsolescence (SOP). The SOP movement, says Muros, has three goals: “To spread the word about planned obsolescence and how it affects us; trying to market more products with a longer duration in order to force competition; and try to unite all social movements to try to change the current economic model”. He says it's possible to buy products that don't have an extended shelf life and cites the example of the light bulb that has been glowing at the Livermore, Calif., fire department for more than 100 years.

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According to Muros, manufacturers generally plan a product already anticipating the end of its operation, forcing the consumer to buy another or repair it. The case of the first generation iPod is a good illustration of the planned obsolescence issue. Casey Neistat, a New York artist, paid $500 for an iPod whose battery stopped working 18 months later. He complained. Apple's answer was: “it's more worth buying a new iPod”. The case became a street action, with several Apple advertising posters graffiti, as shown in the video "iPod's Dirty Secret" (watch below). After all the negative repercussions of this case, Apple made a deal with consumers. It devised a battery replacement program and extended the iPod warranty by $59.

In the documentary "The Light Bulb Conspiracy" (The Light Bulb Conspiracy), director Cosima Dannoritzer shows similar cases of programmed obsolescence . One of them is the inkjet printers that would have a specially developed system to lock the equipment after a certain number of printed pages, without the possibility of repair. In the film, a young man goes to the service to fix his printer. Technicians say there is no repair. Internet ways to solve the problem. he discovers a chip, called Eeprom, which determines the duration of the product. When a certain number of printed pages is reached, the printer locks up.

Repairing a product, however, is sometimes not possible. Annie Leonard created a video on Internet which became a sensation, the “Story of Stuff” (“Stories of things”, in Portuguese), in which he reports that he opened two computers to see what was different inside them. She discovered that it is a little piece that changes with each new version released. However, the shape of this part is also changed, which forces the consumer to buy a new computer, instead of just changing the part.

In the same video, Leonard recalls that, in addition to planned obsolescence, there is also perceived obsolescence, which “convinces us to throw away things that are perfectly useful”. This is because the appearance of things changes, objects take on new functions and advertising is everywhere. As Dannoritzer puts it, “many forms of planned obsolescence go together. In pure technological form, but also in psychological form, in which a consumer voluntarily replaces something that still works just because he wants to have the latest model.”

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The problem with all this is the waste of natural resources and unnecessary waste, which, in many cases, is sent to poor countries as if they were second-hand products. International law prohibits e-waste from being taken from one country to another, but some countries do not respect it. Again in the documentary “The Light Bulb Conspiracy”, the director registers such disregard by showing Agbogbloshie, located in the suburb of Accra, in Ghana, which has become an electronic waste dump in developed countries such as Denmark, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, which send their waste under the pretext to help poor countries, claiming that such electronics can still be reused. However, Dannoritzer points out in his film that more than 80% of this waste is, in fact, garbage and can no longer be reused.

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The problem is that a vast number of these devices are composed of non-biodegradable materials​​ or with a long time for this process to occur. Electronic equipment, for example, contains contaminating materials such as plastic, which takes 100,000 to 1,000 years to degrade. In addition, they have other highly polluting substances (learn more in the article: "What are the environmental impacts of heavy metals in electronics?). According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), 2.5 million tons of lead generated annually around the world, three quarters of this total goes to the production of batteries, which are used in cars, telephones and laptops or industries.

Also according to UNEP, Brazil is the emerging country that generates more electronic waste per person each year, due to (relative) economic stability and the ease of obtaining credit. But there is still no correct destination for this type of waste in the country.

Learn about the obsolescence strategies of products in use in society:

Alternatives

The governments of some countries are aware of this problem. The European Union, for example, asked manufacturers to produce more durable items. Belgium has already passed a resolution in the senate to fight planned obsolescence. In France, an environmentalist party presented in the senate a text in which it criticizes the production of items with a planned expiration date, whether due to a defect, a fragile part, or another similar problem. Anyone who breaks this law can face more than 10 years in prison and pay a fine of up to €37,500.

In Brazil, in February 2013, the Brazilian Institute of Informatics Law (IBDI) filed a lawsuit against the Brazilian affiliate of the US company Apple. The lawyer responsible for the case, Sérgio Palomares, claimed an interval a little longer than 5 months for the launch of the iPad 4, which, according to him, had few changes compared to the previous version, iPad 3. In the US, the interval was seven months and Apple switched the product from consumers who had recently purchased the previous version. The judge who judged the action, however, did not recognize any damage to the consumer in this case.

history of things

The author of "The Story of Stuff”, Annie Leonard, already mentioned in this text, is a former employee of the greenpeace and teacher. The first video in its series has received numerous awards and has been viewed by more than 15 million people around the world. This all yielded a book, which was published on recycled paper and printed in the US with soy-based ink (greener). In his video, Leonard says that buying green products and taking shorter showers, for example, are the first steps to change the reality of rampant consumption in which we live. She says that it is necessary to act and think as a collective, demanding from governments, through the right to vote, more sustainable laws and less support for purchases with credit cards, for example.

Leonard says the interaction she had with her blog audience inspired her to make this video. According to her, the answers given by people to the question "what was possible to have a better world?" were individualistic - focused on the use of ecobags, buying organic products and having healthy habits, such as riding a bicycle. For her, these are good things to do, but the real power lies in acting together as engaged citizens.

The film was released in 2007. What was supposed to be just a video, financed by several environmental foundations, gave rise to the project Story of the Stuff, a non-profit organization with a budget of $950,000 and a staff of four. The subject of the film entered the curriculum of schools and a study guide for churches entitled "Let There Be… Stuff?".

Some criticize the video, saying it sends an anti-capitalist message and presents only one point of view. To this accusation, she replies: "I am not anti-capitalist, but against a system that poisons us and protects the rich at the expense of the poor."

Leonard sees a positive legacy in economic crises. “When there are fewer dollars to spend, we have to think, 'Is it really worth spending the money from that layoff we made over the weekend to buy this new car? Or that pair of shoes that is on sale?”. Check out the famous video: