Most people purchase new technology merely because it is new, not because they have a particular need for it. Meanwhile all the old technology piles up in their home as junk. A slow battery lessening your phone time? Buy a new one!
New model just came out? Don't need my perfectly intact phone anymore! This concept is what is contributing to the tons and tons of electronic garbage created every year. To reduce its environmental effect the least we could do is recycle our old models and use them in the newer ones.

More phones should be able to interchange batteries... APPLE!

true!  and it should *not* be more expensive to fix phones than it is to buy new ones.  This could literally be a government program - a subsidy for tech repair shops, perhaps?

I totally agree with your argument. I am someone who purchases new technology without considering the environmental impact of the electronic waste. Unfortunately, I think people don't realize the importance of recycling their electronics even though there are multiple ways to do it: wireless carriers offer programs for old phones, best buy accepts most old electronics including appliances, and some charities ask for devices as donations. I think we should provide people with education on how to dispose of their old devices and provide incentives, preferably monetary, since people can be apathetic. Consumer Reports provides a list of ways people can recycle their electronics (http://www.consumerreports.org/electron … ectronics/), the content of which should be made common knowledge since, as you said, it's the least we can do.

I completely agree with you. I constantly see people buying new technology without reason, even when their current device is perfectly intact and functioning. For example, my cousin recently bought the iPhone 7. His old phone was a samsung, and it was functioning just fine. He bought the iPhone just for the brand name. It's sad that many people purchase new technology for the look or the status that comes along with it. Instead of worrying about how our technology influences how we appear, we should be worrying about how much of an environmental impact our purchases have. Is having the newest technology really that important, when in retrospect, we are damaging the earth which each device we unessecarily purchase?

I agree that the excessive purchasing of new technology even when existing devices work makes technology a want rather than a need. It would seem this problem is based in two things. For one, planned obsolescence has become the norm among manufacturing companies. In the effort to continually increase sales and profit, it is in a company's best interest to produce goods that will stop working after a given period of time, prompting consumers to purchase the next generation of the given product. In a nutshell, both companies and their consumers increasingly favor quantity over quality. People would rather buy and companies would rather produce four phones in four years than one phone that is well-designed enough to last four years. A BBC article I read recently referenced this phenomenon with the example of the light bulb. They compared the Centennial Bulb, a light bulb made in the 19th century that still works, to 21st century bulbs that need to be replaced every few years at best (perhaps 5-10 for LED lights).  Seeing as this business model is fiscally beneficial to comp anies, the job of incentivizing companies to make longer lasting products falls on consumers. We as consumers must turn our purchasing power towards companies that make sustainable products.

Unfortunately, therein lies the second root of our problem. Everywhere you look, from magazines to commercials, the message of the modern world is that newer is better. Thus, we have a generation of consumers obsessed with purchasing the newest model of any and all forms of technology, even when their current devices still work. In order to change our "want" based approach to technology to a "need" based one, the conviction that newer is better needs to be abolished worldwide.

I live in Guatemala, and I agree that this mentality is just creating more waste, simply to show off that you can purchase the newest version of your smartphone. When they throw away their intact old versions they are increasing the e-waste in the world. One of the countries that is most affected by this is China, and towns that are surrounded by this waste are getting poisoned by the acids and developing skin deformities. We don´t realize that there is no "away" in "throwing away".

I live in Guatemala and we live in a materialistic society where it seems normal to spend a lot of money on new technology and just throw away our old devices. By throwing these devices we create waste that have a big impact on the environment. Recycling is not enough as the devices contain chemicals that no matter what damage the environment. The best solution is to reduce its consumption.