UK recycling fee

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sir1963

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#311251 29-Dec-2023 14:23

Yes, I know the retailers will add it to the cost, but one will hope it will make junk more expensive than quality and that upgrade, repair, reuse, recycle becomes the norm.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/12/28/1830238/retailers-to-pay-for-consumers-e-waste-recycling-from-2026-under-uk-plans

mattwnz

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#3176152 29-Dec-2023 16:09

It is treating the symptoms rather than the cause. IMO they should be charging a higher fee to those appliances that don't last 5 years from normal use. I remember when fridges and freezers used to last 20 plus years without any issue. My parents have a F&P chest freezer that must be 50 years old. But when they purchased a new vertical freezer it only lasted 5 years before it failed and had to be replaced due to the manufacturer not a having replacement circuit board to replace the board that failed. No cost to them, but the manufacturer also had to replace the fridge too, because they were a pidgeon pair and the new one didn't match.

sir1963

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#3176153 29-Dec-2023 16:16

mattwnz:

It is treating the symptoms rather than the cause. IMO they should be charging a higher fee to those appliances that don't last 5 years from normal use. I remember when fridges and freezers used to last 20 plus years without any issue. My parents have a F&P chest freezer that must be 50 years old. But when they purchased a new vertical freezer it only lasted 5 years before it failed and had to be replaced due to the manufacturer not a having replacement circuit board to replace the board that failed. No cost to them, but the manufacturer also had to replace the fridge too, because they were a pidgeon pair and the new one didn't match.

My chest freezer is coming up 39 years old, and working well.

Perhaps there needs to be something about the availability and cost of spare parts for 20+years too.

But combine that with greater "reasonable life expectancy" under the CGA then we have a darn good start.

richms

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#3176166 29-Dec-2023 17:40

The problem with these old fridges and freezers that are still running, is there is nothing checking the efficiency of it is still there.

You may have so little refrigerant left in it, that it keeps running all the time to maintain a barely safe temperature, using loads of power in the process. You are one hot day and someone putting some hot leftovers into it to having it become unsafe and then never recover to a safe temperature.

Modern fridges will monitor these things and let you know when its out out spec. This often means that people upgrade them before they are starting to use $10's of power a week barely functioning, and works out more efficient than keeping a dinosaur operating.

Richard rich.ms

sir1963

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#3176178 29-Dec-2023 18:21

richms:

The problem with these old fridges and freezers that are still running, is there is nothing checking the efficiency of it is still there.

You may have so little refrigerant left in it, that it keeps running all the time to maintain a barely safe temperature, using loads of power in the process. You are one hot day and someone putting some hot leftovers into it to having it become unsafe and then never recover to a safe temperature.

Modern fridges will monitor these things and let you know when its out out spec. This often means that people upgrade them before they are starting to use $10's of power a week barely functioning, and works out more efficient than keeping a dinosaur operating.

Its NOT the refrigerant, trust me even if you have a small leak , you will notice just after a day or two.

The issue is the insulation, particularly with freezers, they can build ice bridges between inside and outside walls lowering the efficiency .

I have replaced the lid seal, and we defrost it every year or so for a few days to ensure any moisture in the insulation dries out as best we can.

With electronics, someone just need to make a "universal" panel that has all the options needed (defrost elements, LED lights, Door alarms etc) then they can become ubiquitous components much like car tyres where one from any supplier can be fitted. Mechanical thermostat controllers are like this, there are variations, but they are available from a range of manufacturers.

There is no secret sauce here, they are simply designed for deliberate obsolescence . At minimum we should have a law that says if spares are not available at fair and reasonable costs, then 3rd party parts are legal and there is no copyright/patent claims possible.

It comes down to what the goal is, to reduce waste and pollution, or keep corporate profits growing.

Handle9

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#3176312 30-Dec-2023 12:00

Studies in the EU and NZ have both found significant (greater than 15%) of fridges and freezers are operating outside their rated specs and appliances older than 11 years old were significantly more likely to be inefficient.

There are a variety of reasons this can be but there are a lot of rose tinted glasses about how appliances were “better” in the past.

sir1963

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#3176339 30-Dec-2023 14:09

Handle9: Studies in the EU and NZ have both found significant (greater than 15%) of fridges and freezers are operating outside their rated specs and appliances older than 11 years old were significantly more likely to be inefficient.

There are a variety of reasons this can be but there are a lot of rose tinted glasses about how appliances were “better” in the past.

I agree, but 85% were fine.

but better insulation that does not degrade over time etc would reduce the number of poor performing appliances further.

Still a win win.

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MadEngineer

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#3176340 30-Dec-2023 14:17

mattwnz:
It is treating the symptoms rather than the cause. IMO they should be charging a higher fee to those appliances that don't last 5 years from normal use. I remember when fridges and freezers used to last 20 plus years without any issue. My parents have a F&P chest freezer that must be 50 years old. But when they purchased a new vertical freezer it only lasted 5 years before it failed and had to be replaced due to the manufacturer not a having replacement circuit board to replace the board that failed. No cost to them, but the manufacturer also had to replace the fridge too, because they were a pidgeon pair and the new one didn't match.

what was the brand of freezer that they couldn’t source that part for?

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.