So, just finished this month's Repair Cafe in #Regina.

There's a depressing pattern where small #appliances, typically #kitchen stuff, fail after just a year or so. The warranties are invariably one year. Nobody, especially the manufacturer, offers service - "Just buy a new one, it's cheaper" is the refrain. Of course, we're trying to "reduce, re-use, recycle" and keep this stuff out of the #landfill.

Even trying to service them is a pain, and sometimes impossible. The cases/shells of modern stuff are frequently absolute b*stards to take apart, and really new stuff now features "one-way clips" - there's literally no way to unclip the shell after it's been clicked together at the factory. You can't access the latching bit, so you have to force it and break the #clip, and then #bodge it back together somehow.

Mandating a longer #warranty, like in the EU - two years, three? - would help, because stuff would have to be designed better.

The two most frustrating from today:

1) A Keurig coffee maker, used twice, a year old. Got it apart, it had leaked water onto the back of the (massively #overcomplicated) CPU board, and shorted it out. Poof, magic smoke gone, tears in the rain, time to die, etc. Who puts the CPU directly under a join in the #water pipe?

2) A gas-powered leaf blower. Fuel line rotted, but to be able to feed new one through from the carburetor to the fuel tank, you have to take the shell apart - which requires disassembling the engine!

#RepairCafe #SK #EWaste

"Things are only going to get worse: The rapid adoption of AI could add between 1.2 million to 5 million metric tons of e-waste in total by 2030, according to a 2024 study published in Nature Computational Science. The high-performance hardware required for AI, such as GPUs and specialized servers, is advancing quickly. The rapid turnover for computing devices — about two to five years — leads to older parts becoming obsolete and being discarded quickly, too.

The Basel Convention, an international treaty that prohibits the illegal transfer of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries, has been in place since the 1990s but implementation is lacking. In 2018, when China’s National Sword policy banned the import of most foreign waste, the U.S. shifted these exports to other Asian and African nations. Most of these countries lack the public awareness and robust regulations to protect themselves from the ill effects on the environment, labor, and health.

In India, devices are far more likely to be repaired, resold, or rebuilt in the vast informal economy than dismantled by certified recyclers. These informal workers, like scrap dealers and small repair shops, prioritize quick value extraction, often using unsafe methods like open burning, acid baths, or manual dismantling."

https://restofworld.org/2026/global-ewaste-crisis/

#eWaste #AI #India #PlannedObsolescence #InformalEconomy #Recycling

#Amazon ends support for old #Kindle devices.

Ugo Vallauri of the @restartproject is quoted as saying although the change was expected to affect only 3% of users, “this could amount to 2m devices rendered obsolete according to some estimates, potentially generating over 624 tons of #ewaste”.

I know this isn't by any means the worst thing Amazon is doing but as one of the affected Kindle owners I'm still bloody livid about it. Some techbro twit is quoted as saying "these devices were built for a different era and are not equipped to run newer, more data-hungry services and features" but I don't want new data hungry features, I just want my perfectly functional ebook reader to continue to allow me to read ebooks.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/09/amazon-upsets-book-lovers-by-ending-support-for-old-kindles

Amazon ends support for older #Kindles

Amazon has announced that from the 20th of May it will stop supporting all Kindle and Kindle Fire devices it released in 2012 or earlier. So what does this mean for people who still use these devices? And how does it fit into the wider issue of software obsolescence?

https://therestartproject.org/right-to-repair/amazon-ends-support-for-older-kindles/ #eWaste #emissions

🌎 Celebrate Earth Month with Scrap, an environmental documentary about Beauty, Collection & Restoration. New at Journeys in Film!

Scrap explores the vast and strangely beautiful places where things go to die and introduces the people who collect, restore, and recycle the world’s scrap. The Scrap Discussion Guide can help you start conversations in your classrooms, public screenings and community education spaces about the circular economy, right to repair, upcycling, and urban exploration. For grades 6-12, adult/higher ed.

Get the Scrap Discussion Guide and educate, engage, and activate your community!

https://journeysinfilm.org/film/scrap-an-environmental-documentary-about-beauty-collection-restoration/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Social+Media&utm_campaign=Scrap+launch&utm_content=link

#EarthMonth #RightToRepair #EWaste #Recycling #Upcycling #Climate #Environment #EarthWeek #EarthDay #Education #Homeschooling #Movies #CanadianFilm #CanadianContent #Documentary #CBCGem

I learnt last week that business computing, that is servers in server racks has built in 3 year obsolescence enforced by licensing and patching on low level drivers. Ironically if you search for news on this outrageous behaviour on Google, Gemini will give a reasonable summary but decent news articles are few and far between. Most ewaste articles instead focus on the consumer, the implication being it's our vanity rather than corporate greed driving this problem.

#ewaste #righttorepair

With the #amazon announcement regarding deprecating support for older kindles, I was reminded of this project I saw a while ago. I am sure there are quite a lot more e-ink based projects which will give some life to a device.

https://hackaday.com/2025/02/27/shelved-kindle-gets-new-life-as-weather-display/

#eWaste
#landfill

@yngmar

The Drive: John Deere to Pay $99 Million in Monumental Right-to-Repair Settlement — https://www.thedrive.com/news/john-deere-to-pay-99-million-in-monumental-right-to-repair-settlement

This is a start. What is going to happen outside of the USA?

#farm #ag #agriculture #ewaste

Amazon is ending support for 8 Kindle models next month: Is yours on the list?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-ending-support-for-older-kindle-e-readers-in-may

BUUUT did you know that for many kindles you can manually change them to run non-amazon books and even PDF files?

Check this out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ZliC82RtA

Come chat to us about it at our Digital Lounge on Saturday if you've wanna chat in person with someone on this stuff.

#AmazonKindle #Kindle #eWaste #CircularEconomy #DigitalJustice #PDF #eBooks #JailbreakYourKindle #ItsYourTechYouOwnIt #RightToRepair