You have to admit that at least one time in your life you wanted to buy a new version of a

product you use because you were lead to believe the old one was not sufficient anymore. We
constantly are reminded that our phone is too old or our clothes aren’t trendy anymore by the
fact that society keeps creating new items.

It all started back in 1900 when the first light bulb was created, and it is still working to
this day. That right there is the problem. If all of the lightbulbs created had a never-ending life
time, the factories would be in and out of business within the span of a couple years! So in
1925, a small group of people got together and designed a lightbulb that would die after 1,000
hours of use. This would help the companies stay in business by having steady customers that
would keep coming back once their lightbulb died.

This has become a huge trend in the market because it is an easy way to make profit. It
is also starting to have a detrimental effect on the environment because we are throwing
perfectly good products away for the newest and improved ones. This produces an unbelievable
amount of waste from the old product but also the waste from the new product as well. New
packaging, costs of travel, and waste of materials used to make it are affecting our world.
“E-waste is the enormous collection of computers, televisions, mobile devices, and all
electronics including—yep you guessed it—your networking equipment that have all been
discarded and dumped into landfills worldwide.What makes e-waste different from other
garbage is its toxicity. Discarded electronics contain toxic materials that seep out and
contaminate the environment.
According to a study conducted by a partnership of United Nations organizations, electronic
waste generated worldwide is expected to climb by 33% by 2017 to 65 million tons.”
(Thompson) Technology is the biggest cause of waste when it comes to planned obsolescence
because other items, like clothes, can be handed down to new people for their need for
something new.

Since we know one of the biggest causes for waste from planned obsolescence we have
the capacity to do something about it. Either figuring a way to dispose of the electronics
appropriately or being able to reuse them. Like thrifting is coming back into style, what if we
could implement a reuse program like a Goodwill or other consignment store. They already
have something like that, Gazelle.com, but I have found that their products are more expensive
even though they have been used. It’s hard to find a reliable resource that supports reusing
things because businesses rely so heavily on new customers and everyone does have their
own choice to make. Since this would be hard to start MakeUseOf helps tells us the easiest
things you can do individually to fix planned obsolescence.

1. “Repair What You Can. When a product isn't working correctly, two options often
come to mind: return or replace. ...
2. Avoid the Latest Trends. …
3. Make Your Own Gadgets. ...
 4. Reuse What You Have. ...
5. Ditch Proprietary Standards. ...
6. Use Free and Open Source Software. ...
7. Shop Second-Hand. ...
8. Do Without.” (King)
We all have our own freedom to do whatever we want, including buying all the new
phones and clothes our heart desires. We need to look at the overarching picture and see who
will be the ones suffering in the future.

King, Bertel. “8 Practical Steps to Fight Planned Obsolescence.” ​MakeUseOf​, 26 Apr.

2017, www.makeuseof.com/tag/steps-fight-planned-obsolescence/.

Thompson, Sachi. “Planned Obsolescence & End of Life: Blog.” ​Curvature​, Curvature, 23
May 2019,
www.curvature.com/resources/blog/planned-obsolescence-end-of-life-bad-for-your-budget
-and-the-environment/.

 
Category Score/Feedback

Depth of Thinking and Argumentation (10) ● I think I provide a good background for
● Student shows DEEP thinking about their philosophy planned obsolescence
of justice ● I am lacking in the argument portion
● Student defends their philosophy with sound
argumentation
● Students’ commentary and evaluation makes
connections between any evidence or examples or
makes connections between another text.
● Student incorporates ​at least 2 ​outside texts from
their issue research
● Each paragraph is focused around a clear idea that is
relevant to the main argument
● Argument is logical and persuasive

Applying your Knowledge (5) ● I use philosophical concepts only at the

● Student is able to meaningfully apply philosophical end of my cover letter and they come
concepts learned during this unit to their chosen out of nowhere
issue

Refinement/Beauty (5) ● I could have spent a lot more time on

● Cover letter meets the minimum length requirement this and refined it in order to be happy
● Meaning of your sentences is clear and easy to with it but I tried my best with what I
follow could do
● Cover letter is carefully proofread for grammar, ●
spelling, and punctuation errors
● Cover letter incorporates rhetorical strategies to
maximize impact on the audience
● Cover letter has been refined for grammatical
mistakes and contains no typos
● Try to use proper in-text citation formatting! ​We’re
practicing now so we can play to perfection with the
thesis paper next semester.