Obsolescence – tackling the throwaway society

In our high-tech society, the service life of many products and devices is shortening. The new smartphone is out of date after just two years, laptops with an integrated battery are thrown away when the battery starts to fail, or the printer purchased just a few years ago stops working.

The factors behind the rapid deterioration of devices are many and varied. The term “obsolescence” describes the (natural or artificial) aging of a product which results in its no longer meeting the need for which it was intended. And here we encounter a fundamental problem of our society: because our prosperity is based on growth and consumption, we constantly exceed our planet’s ecological limits.