Consumerism is the act of obliging oneself and consume in every cumulative amount. In that respect, planned obsolescence is the epitome for the consumerist tendency in durable goods and items, allowing consumers to have a frequent replacement and repurchasing of goods that would to some extent lasted for a longer period. When viewed collectively, planned obsolescence is perceived as unsustainable and unethical. Planned obsolescence has a greater influence on how consumers purchase a particular product or services (Zallio & Berry, 2017). The actualization of planned obsolescence prompts ethical concerns. Opting for planned obsolescence in its functional state encompasses sabotaging prior designs and plans, prematurely rendering them dysfunctional. Moreover, recurrent renewal cycles of goods promote the restriction of a full flow of modernization to a consistent synthetic trickle.
One of the categories of goods that are mostly affected by planned obsolescence is electronics. The disposal of undesirable, old, and dysfunctional electronics causes a huge impact on the surrounding environment. For instance, the nations that lead in the production of electronics devices such as Chin, Ghana, and India continue to experience toxic and dangerous landfills due to huge deposition of e-waste or electronic waste (Satyro et al., 2017). While an individual’s attitude towards the disposal of obsolete goods may have an indirect effect on the planned obsolescence, it exacerbates the environment problem. The negative impact of planned obsolescence to the environment coupled with the conspicuous consumption it attributes amongst consumers is massive, thereby prompting anti-consumerism to be up in arms with the act (Zallio & Berry, 2017). Markedly, the focus should be channelled towards the issue of environmental sustainability. The manufactures of goods that are affected by the planned obsolescence need to come up with a suitable, durable substitute. Pope (2017) adds that to obliterate planned obsolescence, or to generally win against consumerism, it will require concerted efforts from both manufacturers and consumers.
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References
Pope, K. (Ed.). (2017). Understanding planned obsolescence: unsustainability through production, consumption and waste generation . Kogan Page Publishers.
Satyro, W., Sacomano, J., Contador, J., Cardoso, A., & Silva, E. (2017). Planned Obsolescence and Sustainability. Ten Years Workıng Together For a Sustaınable Future . 6th International Workshop: Advances in Cleaner Production Săo Paulo-Brazil-May 24th To 26th.
Zallio, M., & Berry, D. (2017). Design and Planned Obsolescence. Theories and Approaches for Designing Enabling Technologies. The Design Journal , 20(sup1), S3749-S3761.
