Made to last? >>> getting companies to offer a 'lifetime product'

A couple of years ago, we had a BBC TV series on how products are designed to last only a short time, to go out of fashion or simply break down:
Futures Forum: Planned Obsolescence: and The Men Who Made Us Spend

There is a lot of emphasis on 'recycling': 
Futures Forum: The plastics industry is "incredibly supportive of recycling legislation over a more long-term… reduction of disposable culture."

Rather than reducing consumption - or simply being able to reuse stuff:
Futures Forum: Reduce, reuse, recycle >>> >>> 'What's Wrong with the Three Rs of Environmentalism'

And it's very difficult to fix things these days:
Futures Forum: VW... and making 'wholly opaque disposable vehicles' >>> rather than making vehicles which 'run for a long time and are easy to fix'

Some people are trying to fix that:
Futures Forum: Right to repair

And Radio 4's Costing the Earth has looked at some examples:

Made to Last?

Costing the Earth

How long do you reasonably expect your electronic gadgets and clothes to last? Has the cheapening of products meant we're too ready to let them go when they break and buy new? Jheni Osman is sick of things breaking and the energy and resources that went to making them going to waste. She meets those who are fighting back and lengthening the lifecycle of their goods. Around the country those who lack the skills or know-how to fix things are learning how in community parties and online. But some products are now being built so they're difficult or costly to repair. She meets the campaigners who are calling for companies to be upfront about the life expectation of a product alongside the price tag and learns how some companies are offering a 'lifetime product' with repairs and replacements offered if the items break. Is this the way more companies will go or is it commercial suicide? 

Can the fulfilment of fixing a laptop or amp transfer to clothing? We hear why we'll only go a certain way to 'make do and mend' but how even retailers, who've been part of the fast fashion fad, are pioneering new techniques to reuse clothes, find new fabrics and make them last longer. Can the new frock feelgood factor translate to making clothes last longer. 

Related Links

• The Restart Project (therestartproject.org)
• WRAP – Waste Resources Action Programme(www.wrap.org.uk)
• Zero Waste Scotland (www.zerowastescotland.org.uk)
• PLATE – Product Lifetimes and Environment(www.plateconference.org)

BBC Radio 4 - Costing the Earth, Made to Last?
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