Some might say that we live in a throwaway culture. If your favorite pair of blue jeans develops a hole, you toss them in the trash and buy another pair. If your chair is starting to get a little rickety, you replace it instead of repairing it. If a new iPhone is released, your current phone seems obsolete no matter how recently you bought it, and you feel compelled to buy a new one.
Not everyone treats their belongings as though they were disposable, but there are a growing number of people who would rather buy something new than repair what can still work just fine. Over the years, it’s become popular to replace what could be repaired, and to upgrade what does not need to be upgraded.
So how did this throwaway mindset come to be? While it’s hard to give a definitive answer, there are a couple of contributors that certainly played a part. Those things are crafty marketing and poorly manufactured goods.
Overseas manufacturers boasted low price points at the expense of quality. Replacing items becomes second nature when everything you own is constantly breaking. Combine that with good looking people who keep telling you that your life would be better if you had a newer version of what you already own, and it’s no wonder why people are so quick to keep buying new things.
But you don’t need to replace what you have just because it’s not the latest and greatest. Here’s why it’s wasteful to replace things that do not need to be replaced.
Unnecessary upgrades and replacements are a waste of money. If you preemptively replace a component, you’re not going to get your money’s worth out of the original component. Imagine that your servo motor has another 5 to 10 years that it can operate, but you want to replace it just because it’s old. You’re going to miss out on a ROI.
Spending money on a new component just because it is shinier, or a different color, or marginally smaller doesn’t make sense. If what you have works efficiently, there’s no need to spend that money.
Unnecessary replacements also waste material. That old component could end up sitting in a landfill. Then there’s the material used to create the new component. If you’re going to purchase something, you should get everything you can out of it.
Indramat components are made to last. There are Indramat servos that have been running for 30 years and don’t show signs of slowing down. Sure you might need to do repairs every once in a while, but that’s still much cheaper than buying new components all together. Rid yourself of the throwaway mindset, and get the most out of what you’ve got!