Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Annie Leonard: The story of electronics


Annie Leonard talks about why “design for the dump” is toxic to people. She starts of by stating the definition for “design for the dump” she explains that it is making stuff to be thrown away quickly. I found the bit where she says that her DVD player broke and she went to get it fixed, they asked for 50 dollars just to have a look at it and a new one at target would cost 39 dollars. She then goes on explaining the process a product goes through.
It goes through extraction, which she explains is the process of getting the materials. Then we go on to production where the materials are taken to and are manufactured into goods. Then distribution occurs and then consumption where us consumers buy the goods at our local stores and then we use these goods not knowing the harms they could be doing to the environment and us. When we are finished with our electronic products we then go through the process of disposal. Electronic products are then either taken to the landfill or overseas to be taken apart for the parts that can be resold and reused. This showed the harms that a simple electronic device can do but we all depend on them.
Annie Leonard then says that each year we make 25 million tons of e waste that gets dumped, burned or recycled. She then talks about how the company’s the designer’s work for try to “hide costs”. They try to externalise the costs, for example instead of paying to make the work environment safe the workers pay with their health. Externalising costs keep allowing designers to design for the dump.
This video was interesting due to its animation which made is easier to understanding the topic. I think its important for industrial designers to see this video because it looks at design electronics that aren’t reliable and the harms it does to our environment and us.

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