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The World’s E-Waste Has Reached a Crisis Point
(www.wired.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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Make laws that give consumers mandatory, irrevocable warranties that include fit-for-purpose clauses, and has phrasing such as "reasonable expected lifetime" for the goods. Make those laws apply to whoever sells you the goods, not the manufacturer.
Laws like that weed out a lot of crap. Shops won't buy crap in because they have to deal with the warranty on said crap. Manufacturers won't make (as much) crap because they have to deal with returns.
You won't be able to buy a $4 air fryer any more, but the one you do buy will last a lot longer.
Edit: I'm Australian, and we have consumer rights over and above warranties offered by manufacturers. Those rights would be a good start.
They start about half way down this page:
https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/consumer-rights-and-guarantees
an online store could operate from places where such laws don't apply. most people nowadays mainly do their shopping online anyway and physical stores have largely disappeared unless it doubles as a warehouse. i guess australia and NZ has the advantage of stringent import laws though.
but i suppose this goes for my earlier argument as well.
According to the page linked in the post above, overseas businesses selling in Australia are subject to the same rules. It does say the rules might be hard to enforce on overseas businesses though.