Longer Lasting Products: Alternatives To The Throwaway SocietyDr Tim Cooper The present economic system requires us to consume and throw away more and more goods. Yet often it's our desire, and the best interests of the environment, for these goods to last. The contributors to this book, who comprise many of the most significant international thinkers in the field, explore how longer lasting products could offer enhanced value while reducing environmental impacts. If we created fewer but better quality products, looked after them carefully and invested more in repair, renovation and upgrading, would this direct our economy onto a more sustainable course? The solution sounds simple, yet it requires a seismic shift in how we think, whether as producers or consumers, and our voracious appetite for novelty. The complex range of issues associated with product life-spans demands a multidisciplinary approach. The book covers historical context, design, engineering, marketing, law, government policy, consumer behaviour and systems of provision. It addresses the whole range of consumer durables – vehicles, kitchen appliances, audio-visual equipment and other domestic products, furniture and floor coverings, hardware, garden tools, clothing, household textiles, recreational goods and DIY goods – as well as the re-use of packaging. Longer Lasting Products provides policy makers, those involved in product design, manufacturing and marketing, and all of us as consumers, with clear and compelling guidance as to how we can move away from a throwaway culture towards an economy sustained by more durable goods. |
Contents
The Significance of Product Longevity | 3 |
Reevaluating Obsolescence and Planning for It | 39 |
List of Figures | 46 |
List of Tables | 48 |
SubjectObject Relationships and Emotionally Durable | 61 |
Defying Obsolescence | 77 |
3 | 89 |
Understanding Replacement Behaviour and Exploring | 107 |
1 Advertisement promoting longevity with specific reference | 277 |
1 | 279 |
1 Recommended information on product lifespans | 288 |
Can Durability Provide a Strong Marketing Platform? | 297 |
1 Marketing platforms for durability | 303 |
Consumer Influences on Product LifeSpans | 319 |
1 Taxonomy of consumer influences on product lifespans | 324 |
1 Simplified conceptual framework | 325 |
1 Product characteristics affecting the replacement decision | 118 |
2 | 119 |
5 Comparison of design strategies from workshop with lists | 124 |
Slowness and Nourishing | 133 |
1 Expressions of slow activism | 137 |
2 Rebotijo summer jug | 144 |
user | 146 |
Durability Function and Performance | 157 |
1 | 161 |
1 Advantages in manufacturing aftersales services | 167 |
1 | 174 |
Durability and the Law | 181 |
The Law on Guarantees and Repair Work | 195 |
Policies for Longevity | 215 |
1 Potential policy measures | 227 |
Rethinking Marketing | 243 |
1 Contrasting the sustainability and conventional marketing | 264 |
Marketing Durability | 273 |
5 Key factors affecting consumer influence on product lifespans | 331 |
6 Examples of inconsistent consumer behaviour | 339 |
Product Life Cycle Management Through IT | 351 |
1 The ELIMA system | 354 |
iPods new and not so | 364 |
Systems and Practices in | 367 |
1 Cardboard nappy box used as toy box | 371 |
demoted within the household but still | 383 |
10 First design test | 385 |
Household Furniture | 393 |
Telecommunication device Teletangram | 398 |
1 Source of household bulky items by discard route | 399 |
3 Consumers opinions of the reuse potential of bulky waste | 404 |
6 A typical reuse organization | 410 |
417 | |
431 | |