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New UK plan "could spell end of throwaway culture" (BBC News)
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james_s:

--- Quote from: SilverSolder on March 13, 2020, 12:03:31 am ---Sadly, rust is a big problem in some parts of the country, it ends up killing otherwise perfectly functional cars...

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Yes rust is a huge problem and I want to scream whenever it (rarely) snows around here and someone inevitably starts moaning that they need to salt the roads. Finally in recent years they relented and did start salting some roads, thankfully I can now take the bus to work as I refuse to drive in salt. I think people have absolutely no idea how badly salt destroys their cars, easily causing billions of dollars in damage a year. On top of that it causes further billions in damage to infrastructure, I visited Chicago recently and was shocked to see so many newish cars with gaping holes rotted in the wheel arches and all the bridges, light posts and everything else was rusted and nasty.

I just don't get it, a set of good snow tires and a few plows is far cheaper than everyone buying a new car every few years. Stainless or aluminum floorpans and body panels could help a lot too, unfortunately most people are too dumb to realize that paying 50% more for a car that lasts 3 times as long is a sound investment.
MK14:

--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on March 12, 2020, 11:41:05 pm ---The solution to this and similar problems is both simple and impossible.  Simple in that a standardized unit used by everyone would be relatively inexpensive due to large production volume.  Repair of the unit would be possible for the same reason (big market).    But this will never happen because everyone wants unique style and features to differentiate their car from the neighbors and competitors.

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What we need to save the planet, and to get from A to B,  in the way of a car. Is a simple, small/tiny modern day version of the Ford Model T, 'any colour you like, as long as it's black'.
E.g. Like the original UK Mini, a getting from A to B car, with nothing extra. Modernised, of course, not like the old one in the picture.



Rather than what some people really get, such as ...



The cost to the planet, between just what we would need to get from A to B, and these huge, vehicles, is just plain crazy!

james_s:

--- Quote from: tom66 on March 12, 2020, 08:49:47 am ---Perhaps the idea is not something the Chinese would accept but these are everywhere in the UK and the very idea of throwing away a perfectly reusable Li-Ion cell and DC-DC converter, with all the plastic casing components after just two hours of use just disgusts me.

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It seems like much could be accomplished by banning this sort of utterly stupid stuff that nobody really needs vs so much banning and regulating of things that have a larger impact on people. I can think of no reason that something like a disposable charger should exist, a reusable charger that uses disposable alkaline or zinc chloride batteries would be bad enough. Actually as someone who has bought disposable batteries of any sort maybe 3 or 4 times in the last decade I'm a bit surprised there hasn't been a push to eliminate them or tax them heavily to discourage their use. Modern NiMH and Li-ion batteries are very good and there are very few applications for which they are not suitable but the typical consumer is incapable of looking at the big picture and only sees the higher up front cost. Once you own a charger and have an ecosystem of NiMH cells in the house it becomes a total non-issue, you've always got fresh batteries on hand.
james_s:

--- Quote from: MK14 on March 13, 2020, 12:16:02 am ---What we need to save the planet, and to get from A to B, in the way of a car. Is a simple, small/tiny modern day version of the Ford Model T, 'any colour you like, as long as it's black'.
E.g. Like the original UK Mini, a getting from A to B car, with nothing extra.

Rather than what some people really get, such as ...

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The biggest problem that I see is that I (and probably most people) would be terrified to drive around in a tiny deathtrap like that in a sea of gigantic penis-compensating trucks and SUVs. I would be happy to see cars in general shift toward smaller and lighter weight, but it needs to be a widespread shift. Right now even driving my Volvo which was a very large car by European standards when it was built, I can't see around all these tall crossover SUVs everyone has and even things like the drive through mail drop at the post office has recently been raised up to where I can barely reach it without getting out of my car. I'll be glad when that fad ends.
MK14:

--- Quote from: james_s on March 13, 2020, 12:21:43 am ---The biggest problem that I see is that I (and probably most people) would be terrified to drive around in a tiny deathtrap like that in a sea of gigantic penis-compensating trucks and SUVs. I would be happy to see cars in general shift toward smaller and lighter weight, but it needs to be a widespread shift. Right now even driving my Volvo which was a very large car by European standards when it was built, I can't see around all these tall crossover SUVs everyone has and even things like the drive through mail drop at the post office has recently been raised up to where I can barely reach it without getting out of my car. I'll be glad when that fad ends.

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Which makes it a viscous circle.
'I'll fix my behaviour, as soon as everyone else fixes their's first'.

So maybe unappetising legislation, will get us out of this viscous circle. But that could take a lot longer, than the planet takes, for mother nature, to reek her revenge.

We are already seeing terrible weather round the world at times, e.g. Bad flooding in the UK, Out of control forest fires in Australia, Ice caps melting, etc.
I wonder if the Corona Virus, has got any connection to what we are doing to the planet. Maybe overpopulation and too much international flying, are factors.
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