Chromebooks are dying fast and creating unnecessary e-waste [View all]

[bucolic_frolic]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/1793248/chromebooks-dont-last-long-enough-report-claims.html

You probably know that Chromebooks ship with a planned lifespan set by Google. A new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group claims that Google’s practice, however, hurts both schools and the environment by essentially forcing customers to junk them after a given period of time.

The U.S. PIRG argues that this “Chromebook churn” is an artificial limit that essentially forces consumers and schools to toss out Chromebooks after a set period rather than let them expire though hardware faults or other causes. This contributes to e-waste, the group argues, as well as forcing additional costs through what it characterizes as planned obsolescence.

What the U.S. PIRG wants Google to extend the lifespan of Chromebooks to ten years, after which the devices could be recycled. One of the problems is, incidentally, that Chromebooks aren’t recycled. Just a third of these ChromeOS devices are actually broken down and recycled while the rest apparently end up in landfills as e-waste. The U.S. PIRG also wants Google to work with Chromebook makers to design better and more compatible interchangeable hardware, so they’ll simply last longer and be repaired if they don’t.

“We have a massive stuff problem,” the PIRG’s report says. “We don’t need most of it and too much of it is built to be disposable. We shouldn’t allow planned obsolescence that keeps us buying more all the time. The least we can do, if we’re giving every student in the U.S. a laptop, is ensure these devices are durable and repairable—not part of a constant churn.”