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As most of you already
know, the Successful Reversal of Global
Warming will require massive
efforts. It will require major social,
economic, political, religious, and
environmental changes. The
sample described on this page is a very easy
way to begin making significant changes.
The example here is
assuming that the manufacturer has also
created a non-profit foundation and is
participating in The New Corporate World² so that the company's survival is not
dependent upon selling products that its
customers do not need.
There are are
undoubtedly thousands of ways that we
could stop the production of
trash. One of the best ways to do
that is to eliminate unnecessary production at
the point of manufacture. The
example offered here is used because it's very
simple, easy to implement, and has literally
hundreds of thousands of potential
applications. It could reduce
new-product cost and would definitely avoid
creating mountains of trash. It's
also an excellent way to focus the public's
attention on recycling. The cost
to manufactures in re-tooling to produce the
standardized products is minimal. The
production of power cords is an easy product
in which to:
1)
Create a set of consumer-product
component standards. With
regard to power cords, most of the standards already exist. They are just
not used by many manufactures. Instead,
they produce
cords that fit their own product
only.
2)
Except for special-use products, make all cords as removable
components. With the exception of
the computer industry, most consumer products
are made with the cords intimately
attached. They are neither
removable, re-usable, or
interchangeable.
3)
Produce power cords using standard male
and female ends as modular components,
designed to be sold along with, but separate
from the products to which they
attach. If the customer already
has a specifically designated cord
appropriate for use with the product being
sold, he/she need not buy another
one,
4)
Encourage customers to substitute the use of
existing components in the place of purchasing
new pieces.
A Very Specific Example: A vast percentage of the U.S. population own
or have access to a computer so we'll use
the computer power cord as our first specific
example. When you look
more closely at your computer-system's
power-cords, one of the first things you'll
notice that your computer, your monitor and
your printer all use an identically designed
power cords. Color, lengthy
and wire-gage may vary slightly, but in terms
of function, they are identical.
Next, you notice that although they are interchangeable
with each other, they are NOT interchangeable
with the standard electric extension cord or
with any other electrical devices.
They have no use outside of the computer
world, other than perhaps your fax machine
(some other similar device) which may
have a similarly designed power cord.
But in reality, your computer cords are
useless there, as well, because each of these
other machines comes with its own power
cord.
When
a you upgrade your system, your new computer,
monitor, and printer each come with a new
power cord. Although you already have
three completely usable, good-as-new,
power cords, you must buy three new
ones. So what becomes of the
old ones. TRASH! TRASH!
TRASH! Collectively, we produce
mountains of unnecessary TRASH! --- All
in the name of making a few dollar more in
short term profits for the product's sellers.
And,
at the moment, our simple example does not
include the addition cords that come with
every computer: computer to
printer -- computer to monitor
-- computer to keyboard -- computer
to keyboard -- computer to mouse
-- computer to telephone
-- plus all the external devices that
plug into your computer, such as an external
hard drive, telephone, camera,
etc. Much of this is also the unnecessary production of
mountains of TRASH!
TRASH! TRASH! --- All in the name of
making a few dollar more in short term profits
for the product's sellers. These
cords could also be standardized, produced in
modular formats and be interchangeable
Example Two -- The Common Lamp: If you have electricity in your home, you almost
certainly have several lamps. We'll use a
lamp cord as our second specific
example. Your lamps are made with the cords intimately
attached. They are neither
removable, re-usable, or
interchangeable. When your
lamp is no longer usable or when, for other
reasons, it is being replaced with a
different lamp, what happens to the electric
cord. Although, in most cases it
is as good as new, it is disposed of
along with the lamp, and you buy a new lamp
with another cord intimately attached --
another cord that is neither
removable, re-usable, or
interchangeable.
Again we have the unnecessary production of TRASH!
TRASH! TRASH! --- All in the name of
making a few dollar more in short term profits
for the product's sellers. And the same is true for
thousands of other
electrical devices.
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