In honor of Earth Day, let's look at a once-commonplace feature that has almost entirely disappeared from today's consumer electronics. To illustrate my point, here's a picture from my gadget archive, a perfectly ordinary Sony radio Walkman of mid-90's vintage:
(Credit:
Adam Richardson)
(Credit:
Adam Richardson)
(Credit:
Adam Richardson)
What does this have to do with Earth Day? A couple of things:
1. Screws facilitate repairability
Screws allow easy disassembly without potential for breaking housing parts. Without disassembly, easy repair or replacement of internal parts is more difficult, and pretty much impossible for the everyday user. What do you think that does to the likelihood the product will get repaired, or parts of it re-used for another product?
(Nerd note: Most CE devices today are either snapped together (and snaps are purposefully hard to take apart without breaking), or are fastened with a process known as ultrasonic welding. Essentially the plastic parts are vibrated together at very high speed causing the plastic at the edges to melt and fuse together, making a very strong bond. This also makes them impossible to get into, kind of like that clear plastic "blister" packaging that a lot of small products come in where you have to take a chainsaw to get it open and you destroy it in the process.)
2. Shift from "fix it" to "junk it"
Looking beyond individual products, screws are symptomatic of a gradual but persistent shift away from the mentality of repairing products, both for manufacturers and consumers. Products just get thrown "away", but of course there really is no "away", it's just out of sight and out of mind.
On the Walkman shown here the screws are clearly illustrated with arrows that almost encourage one to get into the guts. Today the equivalent product -- the iPod -- is hermetically sealed and we are explicitly kept out of understanding how it works or from thinking that it can be repaired.
Companies only profit when we buy new things, not when we get them repaired. And the costs of repairing or servicing old CE devices have approached so close to the ever-reducing cost of new ones, thanks to Moore's Law, global supply chains, and constant price pressure from mega retailers. Many people, for example, buy a new inkjet printer whenever they need to replace the ink, since the cost of the printers themselves (often sold at or below cost since profits are made on the cartridges) is barely above the new cartridges. Therefore most consumer electronics are designed be disposable, not repairable.
This is an unsustainable system. We have to break ourselves (as consumers) from the disposable thinking, and manufacturers also have to find ways to facilitate and profit from repairs, not just new product sales.
I moved to New York about a month ago and now that the apartment hunt is over, my next project is to get all the necessary junk to fill my room. The first thing I need (read: want) is an alarm clock, and I am a CNETeer (read: nerd), so I've been looking into unique iPod alarm clock radios.
(Credit:
Design Public)
In my search, I stumbled upon a batch of wooden radios designed by Singgih Kartono. They're made of sustainable ebony wood and crafted by local Indonesian carpenters in areas of high unemployment. The radios come in three sizes, each with a slightly different shape but all with the same modernist innovation aesthetic, reminiscent of George Nelson or Paul McCobb.
The models feature an AM/FM radio, two shortwave bands, and a line-out port for connecting an external audio source. Kartono also includes an external radio antenna with a wooden washer on the end that helps to increase radio reception. Also, the radio can be powered by AA batteries. It would have been nice to have an analog clock over the speaker cover, but I can respect the Ramsian "Weniger, aber besser" (less, but better) approach.
The radios are $200, $250, and $300, and can be purchased at Design Public.
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(Credit:
Design Public)
(Credit:
SuperGreen Boards)
My colleague Hunter Smith of frog design has used his entrepreneurial spirit to launch a budding start-up based on his two greatest passions: eco-design and skateboarding. Hunter's company, aptly named SuperGreen Boards, employs some of the most advanced eco-friendly technologies for producing custom longboards, slalom, and speedboards.
SuperGreen Boards uses bamboo, which is not only beautiful, strong, and flexible but is also sustainably harvested. Maple wood, known as the gold standard for skateboards because of its strength under the pressure of the rider, takes a minimum of 100 years to mature before it can be used. Bamboo, in comparison, takes only five years for a stalk to mature, converts eight times more CO2, and is 17% harder than maple. Adding even more strength to the board, Hunter uses a fiberglass alternative made entirely of finely woven strands of bamboo fiber, and bonds it to the board using very low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) epoxy. In the next few months, Hunter is hoping to convert from low VOC to a soy-based epoxy as the technologies become available.
Hunter says: "I'm delighted to see skaters adopt a green mentality and a desire to preserve the Earth for future generations. I am proud to provide boards for down-to-earth, eco-conscious riders with an eye for style."
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