On 31 Jul 2006 07:51:05 -0700, "Too_Many_Tools"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I doubt it is the "Greenies" who cause senseless destruction of useful
items.

Logic would dictate that they would rather see them recycled or reused.

The Australian Greens propose to legalise untested, recreational, mind
altering *drugs*, and I don't just mean dope. OTOH, they are
completely against GM *food*. Logic? I don't think so.

What I would like the greenies to do is to lobby for mandatory
paperless service manuals for all consumer goods to be made freely
available via the Internet. That would keep a lot of otherwise
repairable appliances out of the "recycle" bin.

I would also mandate that all spare parts and consumables be priced to
reflect the cost of the appliance. For example, I don't want to have
to dump a $100 DVD player because a laser assembly costs $200, even if
it were available. Nor should I be forced to purchase a new mobile
phone because of the cost of a replacement battery, nor do I want to
trash a $100 printer because a pair of cartridges costs $120.

AFAIK, current Australian legislation requires that manufacturers
provide spare parts for a reasonable period (7 years?), but this is
often circumvented by ridiculous pricing practices.

Maybe the Greenies should divert their attention from plastic bags,
which are actually useful, and focus instead on the electronic goods
that find their way prematurely into the landfill.

Another positive move would be to remove government imposts on
replacement parts and repair charges.

Instead, the only proposal the Australian Greens have floated in
recent times is a suite of 30 additional taxes which would make
disposal more expensive to the consumer. Rather than making it more
painful to throw things away, the Greens should be thinking about how
to make it easier to hang on to what we have.

- Franc Zabkar
--
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