Planned and Perceived obsolescence.

As our move approaches, I am time and time again blown away by how great it is to be married to someone who shares my values, and approach to things of this world. The latest realization came while we were driving to Church, the wife was in the middle of describing a little antique breakfast table she had seen in a shop and wanted to buy. Mid sentence, she paused, looked out the window and asked me to stop the car. She quickly hopped out and returned a few seconds later clutching almost the exact table she had been describing to me, only this one was not purchased from an antique store but found discarded on the side of the road. It was then I realized it was council clean up week in the area surrounding the Church, the time when people purge their houses of unwanted possessions. (also the time when penniless pastors furnish their homes).

As I looked down the street I was staggered at the amount of waste, rubbish and discarded items there were. There were literally piles and piles stretching all the way down the street. The piles were mostly made up of two things: Rubbish, e.g. broken furniture and old suitcases, or Perfectly good but out of fashion furniture, e.g. little antique tea tables and retro leather briefcases.

Council clean ups happen about 6 times a year so this mountain of waste had only taken a few months to accumulate. It was then I realized just how mush we are at the mercy of planned and perceived obsolescence.

These days products are made to break. We all know about it, we all complain about it, but we all continue to purchase, break, and replace products at an alarming rate. If however our products are not breaking in time, producers will work overtime to convince us that the product is useless despite it still functioning at 100%. The most obvious example of this perceived obsolescence is fashion. Where last years shoes are suddenly completely useless because Chucks were so last summer….

The bit that worries me most is that we simply do not have the resources to continue to consume at this rate. As it is Australia has one of the largest ecological footprints per capita in the world. We are using the treasures of this planet faster than they are being replaced. God looked at his creation and declared it to be ‘very good’ (Gen 1) he also gave mankind the responsibility of caring for this ‘very good’ planet. Dose our consumption reflect this charge?

Personally I want to set the agenda for how I consume. I want to buy products that last, and if I do want to get rid of something, I don’t want it to become land fill.

- for more info check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM