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Every year, a variety of poorly-made tools, small appliances, electronics, and other items are churned out at factories in Asia and Latin America before being sold by American retailers. The type of products varies depending upon the year; DVD players which last a few months, TVs with knobs that strip within weeks, keyboards with keys that start failing after a couple months, nearly-useless cameras that easily break, rechargeable flashlights with chargers that fail within the year, or alarm clocks that quickly wear out. In addition to wasting the customer's money, these poor quality products harm the environment by generating pollution, increased dumping, oil depletion, and global warming. Like any product, pollution is created in the process of manufacturing and transporting them to retailers. Forests are cut down to make their packaging materials and instruction manuals. Oil is used to produce them (running factory equipment, making oil-based plastic), helping to bring about the eventual depletion of world oil supplies and promoting the exploitation of fossil fuel reserves in areas where greater harm to the environment will be caused. The poor quality products soon fail and are dumped, releasing large quantities of lead, mercury, and other hazardous substances. Customers respond by driving to a store and purchasing a replacement (which also generated pollution and increased global warming in its manufacture and shipping), thus adding to the demand and bringing about additional production. Such products are generally not identifiable by price, retailer, or brand name; it is not uncommon for major well-known brands to sell them, and some brands have become little more than different names for the same Chinese products. However, if the demand for such products reduced, retailers would eventually stop carrying them and factories would cease making them; this would help the environment and save consumers money. Here are some steps which can be taken to counteract the environmental harm caused by these products... 1. Read reviews of products before purchasing them. Reviews can be found online for a wide range of new and used items, even some that are very inexpensive or small. 2. Write reviews of products, good or bad, that you buy or receive as gifts. This helps inform other customers as to which items they should or shouldn't buy. 3. If a product fails within a year after you start using it, avoid buying any more items from the same brand unless you specifically know they are of better quality. 4. Do not try to dispose of items containing parts with hazardous substances (such as picture tubes or batteries) in regular trash or locations where dumping is not permitted, even if there is a cost associated with properly disposing of them. 5. If it is safe, remove any potentially useful parts or accessories (adapters, antennas, battery covers, knobs, etc) from such products before disposing of them, and keep them in a bag or box to help repair other items. |