On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:32:12 -0000, "Arfa Daily" wrote:



"Jeffrey Angus" wrote in message
...
On 2/14/2011 10:04 AM, Arfa Daily wrote:
I'm sure that government could have a much more significant
impact on the electronics recycling situation, by legislating
on making parts and service assistance available.

They have, they've made it illegal to throw anything in the trash
with wires attached.

So all the old dead TV sets and such are just dumped in the ally
ways and streets when nobody is looking now.

Jeff

That still means that they are actually encouraging recycling rather than
repair, though. Although I don't have a problem with the principle of
recycling materials, it never-the-less still requires a (disproportionate ?)
energy input to carry it out. I feel that many people are forced to replace
their goods sooner than they otherwise would, by the fact that they can't
get them repaired. Surely, it would be better for governments to deal with
the problem directly at manufacturer level, by legislating along the lines
of "You wanna sell your goods in our country ? Fine, but you have to make at
least service info available."

Some gear seems unrepairable, SD memory socket spring broke in my P&S camera,
sent it in to Canon for warranty repair, they sent me next model camera as
warranty replacement rather than replace the busted memory socket! Maybe
they wanted the cam as QA sample? I think they simply decide what's cheaper,
and labour rates are too high, in relation to the consumer goods prices these
days. No incentive to repair from owner's PoV?. Dead computer monitor, $90
to repair or $130 to replace -- which way most people go these days?

Grant.

I can sympathise with manufacturers' positions on spare parts to some
degree. These days, it would be a logistic nightmare to try to be able to
hold and supply all of the specialist parts used in modern equipment, but so
much of this stuff could be EASILY fixed with standard off-the-shelf
components, if only schematics even, were made available.

Arfa