Our devices come with a hidden environmental impact. We reveal what we learned about different products and how, by repairing our gadgets when they break, we can reduce their overall impact.
Consumption
Huawei’s smashing spectacle of planetary significance
The company asked people to queue in Soho for the opportunity to smash up their existing mobile phone, and win a new mobile. We immediately shared our disgust with this spectacle, which seemed to promote destruction of functioning mobiles, that could have second and third lives.
The crime of disposability
We’ve repaired for over five years in our communities. Now we are witnessing worrying developments, including the emergence of products that are simply — and unnecessarily — disposable. Some are even single-use.
Repair as PR stunt: retailers, give us more than clever campaigns
For us to believe that retailers are serious about repair and reuse, we need to see them fully integrated into their whole business models. Instead of PR, we need evidence of design for longevity, and greater guarantees on products.
How to find reliable commercial repairers?
We took the opportunity to research commercial repair businesses in East London to come up with initial criteria to help find reliable options
Sorry, we haven’t reached ‘peak stuff’
This narrative frame of “peak stuff” is particularly dangerous because it suggests we are overcoming global, future resource depletion like we *are doing* with ozone, or we think we already did with acid rain. It lulls us into a very false sense of complacency.
Fixing our massive electronic waste problem
We created a film in time for Earth Day. In this short film, we confront the electronic waste mountain. Globally, we produced 42 million tons of this waste last year. It seems abstract as a number but video makes it real.
TGIF: Thank God I’m not in a Factory
We have created elaborate empathy buffers. Not just in relation to the people who make our gadgets, but to the people most impacted by the massive greenhouse gasses emitted in electronics production.