The Times - UK (2020-11-26)

20 1GM Thursday November 26 2020 | the times

News

Amazon and Apple have been accused
of “dodging their environmental re-
sponsibility” for electrical products
they sell and should have to ensure that
they can be recycled or repaired easily.
MPs on the environmental audit
committee said that the two were big
contributors to “a waste tsunami” in-
volving 155,000 tonnes of phones, tab-
lets, laptops and other items sent to
landfill or incinerators every year.
Some companies were “deliberately”
making items hard to repair, they said in
a report. “This means we are buying and
using more than we need to be.” The
government should enshrine a “right to
repair” in law, enforcing access to repair
manuals, affordable spare parts and en-
suring repairs were not prevented by
lack of access to specialist tools.
The report said that the government
should also ban the practice of inten-

Our phones bombard us with messages
and other notifications, but they’re not
what keeps us checking our devices.
A study found that smartphone ad-
diction is unlikely to be a result of noti-
fications and that only 11 per cent of in-

Apple makes a ‘waste tsunami

of gadgets that can’t be fixed’

Ben Webster Environment Editor tionally reducing the lifespan of prod-
ucts through “planned obsolescence”.
MPs said that VAT should be cut on
repair services as is the case in parts of
the EU. All electrical products should
be labelled with their life expectancy,
including for how long they would re-
ceive software updates. They should
also carry a “repairability score”.
The UN has said that the average
person in Britain discarded more elec-
trical items last year than anywhere ex-
cept Norway. They inlcude elements
needed for wind turbines, solar panels
and electric car batteries. The MPs said:
“The global supply of these materials
will run out, and exporting, incinerat-
ing or sending old electronics to landfill
could mean they are lost for ever.”
Apple and other technology compa-
nies glued and soldered internal com-
ponents making repair “nearly impos-
sible”. The MPs said that consumers
were unable to access manuals. “In-

stead the charges proposed for repair by

Apple in particular can be so expensive

it is more economical to replace the

item completely.” The report said that

Apple’s 2019 MacBook Pro 16 inch was

“ranked one out of ten for repairability”.

The committee condemned Apple

for refusing to appear before MPs.

From January 1 many shops will be

obliged to take back an item when a

consumer buys a similar new one, but

online retailers will not face a similar

requirement for at least another year.

Philip Dunne, the committee’s Con-

servative chairman, said: “Repairing

and recycling must become common-

place for electronics.”

Amazon said that it had “supported

the recycling of more than 10,000 ton-

nes of electronic waste in the UK over

the last decade”. Apple said that there

were “more options for customers to

trade in, recycle and get safe, quality re-

pairs than ever before”.

Phone addicts don’t need pings and beeps

teractions with our phones are in re-

sponse to an alert. The researchers,

from the London School of Economics,

said we are driven instead by an “almost

automatic” urge “just as a smoker

would light a cigarette”. Maxi Heitmay-

er and Professor Saadi Lahlou, the

authors, added that there was usually

no need for a notification, “nor a clear

and strong intention of the user”.

The study analysed 37 people, aged

25 on average, in the UK, Germany and

France who wore glasses with cameras

to show where they were looking. The

average gap between phone checks was

291 seconds, or just under five minutes.

Tom Knowles

T

he “continued

existence” of

the 300-year-

old Society of

Antiquaries of

London, which houses

neolithic tools and

early copies of Magna

Carta among other

treasures, is under

threat because of a

massive rise in rent

paid to the

government (Mark

Bridge writes).

The society faces

having to sell some of

its valuable artefacts

to stay afloat. The rent

for its premises at

Burlington House on

Piccadilly has risen

from £4,800 to

£150,000 a year since

2012 under a formula

linked to commercial

property values.

The society wants to

encourage the

government to offer an

alternative deal after

eight years of

negotiations failed.

Paul Drury, the

society’s president,

said he would be

“mortified” if items

ended up being sold to

overseas buyers as a

result of the impasse.

The society, which

was founded in 1707,

has been based at

Burlington House

alongside other

learned societies and

the Royal Academy of

Arts, since the 1870s,

runs regular public

and academic events,

and offers grants for

scholarship and

conservation.

Its 170,000 artefacts

include three medieval

copies of Magna

Carta, one from 1225,

ten years after the

original was sealed,

the 1553 proclamation

announcing Lady Jane

Grey as Queen of

England and tools

Rent rise endangers

historical societies

R t i

The Dream of

the Virgin by

Simone dei

Crocifissi and a

portrait of

Richard III are

highlights of

the Society of

Antiquaries

collection at

the Burlington

House base it

has occupied

since the 1870s