<story><title>EU Parliament calls for longer lifetime for products</title><url>http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/durable-products.47bf</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lumberjack</author><text>Wages have gone up and consumer goods have gone down in price and build quality. It&amp;#x27;s not feasible to have a repair business any more. Growing up, there were still loads of repair businesses around. You could fix anything.&lt;p&gt;If build quality and price go up, you can revert to an economy where you would fix your broken appliance once or twice before you replacing it.&lt;p&gt;But what&amp;#x27;s the incentive for the manufacturers?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Someone</author><text>If there was a clear incentive, the EU parliament probably wouldn&amp;#x27;t ask for one to be created (&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Europe&amp;#x27;s Parliament called on the Commission, Member States and producers Tuesday to take measures to ensure consumers can enjoy durable, high-quality products that can be repaired and upgraded.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;)&lt;p&gt;If followed up, this could end up the same as with lead-free soldering. There weren&amp;#x27;t good incentives for manufacturers to remove lead from soldering until the EU passed the RoHS directive (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Restriction_of_Hazardous_Substances_Directive&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Restriction_of_Hazardous_Subst...&lt;/a&gt;) and, subsequently, laws were introduced to implement it throughout the EU.</text></comment>
<story><title>EU Parliament calls for longer lifetime for products</title><url>http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/durable-products.47bf</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lumberjack</author><text>Wages have gone up and consumer goods have gone down in price and build quality. It&amp;#x27;s not feasible to have a repair business any more. Growing up, there were still loads of repair businesses around. You could fix anything.&lt;p&gt;If build quality and price go up, you can revert to an economy where you would fix your broken appliance once or twice before you replacing it.&lt;p&gt;But what&amp;#x27;s the incentive for the manufacturers?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>FTA</author><text>&amp;gt; But what&amp;#x27;s the incentive for the manufacturers?&lt;p&gt;Possibly reducing the companies&amp;#x27; environmental footprint on the world.&lt;p&gt;Instead of cheap devices being scrapped every two years and sent to the landfill, consumers could instead hold on to the companies&amp;#x27; products for much much longer. If products have comparatively more time and quality parts, the cost will indeed go up--both for manufacturing and retail price.&lt;p&gt;My grandmother had the same bread mixer the whole time I was growing up. And I know she had it long before I was born. It was built to last and she took care of it. My mother, on the other hand, went through at least six different plastic, Made in China bread mixers over the course of my childhood.&lt;p&gt;Where&amp;#x27;s the corporate responsibility for all the waste that is generated by crappy products?&lt;p&gt;If you were KitchenAid or another brand, wouldn&amp;#x27;t you want to set yourself apart from the others as a company who cares about the environment by making products that will last for years to come and acknowledging that in advertising? Products that can also be repaired if there is an issue, as opposed to chucked aside for a new one because of their lack of value?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d consider such a company the &amp;quot;Whole Foods&amp;quot; of appliances. Citizens who share similar conservation values will likely pay more for that product, just as those who opt for solar&amp;#x2F;wind energy over coal.</text></comment>