161–170 of 336 posts
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If they can figure out how to make the stuff out of bamboo, then we have ourselves a carbon sequestration method. No more global warming.
Bamboo is made of cellulose, which is not what you would want to use for making plastics. The problem with cellulose is that, because it is fibrous, there aren't really any efficient ways of breaking it down.
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The devil is in the details. For example the "chemical tax" is on the weight of the products, so when you buy consumer electronics you are supposed to be paying 120 kr/kg up to a maximum of 320 kr before VAT. This is blamed on environmnentally hazardous flame retardants on circuit boards. So the very design of this tax incentives less weighty electronic products, but I've learned that some electronic products longevi…
The obvious question is then why they chose to tax the total weight and not the total amount of hazardous flame retardant (or what ever classification they want to categorize the environmentally hazardous chemicals"). Maybe the industry refuse on the ground of trade secrets, or maybe it would be too costly for the producer to produce the correct measurements, or maybe retailers has not enough pressure to get producer…
Same goes for the pc-gamer that builds his own PC. Buys individual components gets taxed on each, upgrades and replacements of components are taxed. But a regular consumer goes out and buys a flimsy laptop taxed less and throws away the laptop when it breaks.
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The idea is great. The problems will be with the implementation, how it will change incentives, any loopholes introduced, cost of enforcement and unintended consequences. What exactly is a repair? Are parts covered, or only labour? Think ship of Theseus. Is an upgrade a repair, can I put a better compressor, rather than like-for-like in my refrigerator when it's failed? Can I have my TV repaired by replacing all the…
A alternative approach could be taxing garbage. Perhaps inevitable once sensors become pervasive and cheap enough. Too some extent this is already done and enforced for disposing of blatantly dangerous things. In some cases you could end up in prison in addition to fines, if caught. The more subtle things that add up to a big problem have been given a lot of leeway. Right now it is profitable for many parties to extr…
Ok, how do you keep people from dumping their garbage in someone else's garbage bin, or in some public place in the middle of the night?
This also doesn't really deal with the fact that different garbage has very different effects on the environment and society, and very different mass. "E-waste" frequently doesn't weigh that much, but has a lot of both valuable metals and also hazardous materials which can cause problems when dumped in a landfill. Mercury-bearing batteries are especially bad, but those don't weigh much at all. Some broken dishes, however, can easily weigh far more than old electronic gadgets or leaky batteries, but they're just pottery so they're completely inert and have zero negative environmental effects. And yard waste and kitchen waste isn't environmentally problematic at all, yet it can weigh a lot because much of it is water. It'd be better to compost it, but urban dwellers have no place to put a compost pile.
This is a very nice move to see. Other people have discussed washing machines below, but there's even more to say on them. Washing machines used to have long warranty periods. Nowadays they tend to be sold with a 2 year warranty, which I believe in the EU is the required minimum. And these manufacturers (Bosch, for example) even have the gall to claim that their products are high quality and that this warranty period…
I am only aware of one brand of washing machine that explicitly claims to be designed to be repairable by the end-user--Staber. I have never actually owned or used one before, so I'm not sure how fit for purpose it may be otherwise. I have successfully repaired other brands of washing machine, dryer, and refrigerator, though. It isn't that difficult, but obtaining the replacement parts is absolutely ridiculous. The f…
I really think the simplest way to make this sort of thing happen is to increase the minimum warranty period. If 8 year warranties become mandatory, companies will need to be able to stock replacement parts for much longer if they don't want to have to replace the machine outright with a newer model when it breaks. They may then find that standardising parts is in their interests, etc.
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In the US it's the exact opposite. Saying you're not religious is political suicide!
Well saying you are not some form of Christian. Both an atheist and a Muslim would have no chance of being elected. Jewish seems to be generally okay. Not sure on Buddhist or other eastern religions.
Note that Mitt Romney is Mormon, which is sometimes considered non-Christian. Thomas Jefferson is probably the closest the US ever had to an atheist president (he wrote a translation of the New Testament that cut out all of the miracles)--in a time when church was actually held inside the US Capitol. I'm not aware of any viable non-Christian presidential candidates, although there have been Jews for the vice presidential nominee (Lieberman) or as primary candidates (Sanders).
Judging from polls that ask questions like "Would you vote for a president if he were an atheist?", an outright atheist would be unlikely to hold a successful run for the presidency, at least not for another century or so. Muslims would probably have a harder time than Buddhists or Hindus (as far as I know, there really haven't been any studies on the latter groups), but they'd have an easier time than atheists.
For less visible elected roles in the US, there are already Muslims and atheists who have been elected. The first Muslim representative in Congress was sworn in on Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Koran.
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The idea is great. The problems will be with the implementation, how it will change incentives, any loopholes introduced, cost of enforcement and unintended consequences. What exactly is a repair? Are parts covered, or only labour? Think ship of Theseus. Is an upgrade a repair, can I put a better compressor, rather than like-for-like in my refrigerator when it's failed? Can I have my TV repaired by replacing all the…
I'm pessimistic too. However, the labour cost is so huge that it will offset some of your points and only give a slight edge to repair and second hand shops. If you don't have a top of the range, almost new fridge or TV, even phone, repair will almost always come close to replacement cost. And replacement give you back a 2 years guarantee with faster turnaround.
I tend to repair everything, and let me say that's not true for the vast majority of my possessions, including cars, appliances, electronics, etc. It highly depends on the nature of the failure, but generally parts are cheaper than replacement. Here are a list of things I've recently repaired around my house + the parts to repair. I don't recall the parts costs, but all were far lower than replacing the entire thing:
Dishwasher: Control board
Garage door opener: Broken gear and sprocket
Hot tub: Two pumps and a pressure/flow sensor
AV receiver: Three capacitors
Rear projection TV: Convergence ICs
Attic fan: Fan motor
And probably tons more that I'm not recalling at the moment. The key is to stop throwing money away on labor costs. Even getting someone out to your house can cost $50-100 and that's before he even does anything. Total scam. I disagree with a lot of replies here--DIY repair is still a viable option for most things around the home.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea is great. The problems will be with the implementation, how it will change incentives, any loopholes introduced, cost of enforcement and unintended consequences. What exactly is a repair? Are parts covered, or only labour? Think ship of Theseus. Is an upgrade a repair, can I put a better compressor, rather than like-for-like in my refrigerator when it's failed? Can I have my TV repaired by replacing all the…
A alternative approach could be taxing garbage. Perhaps inevitable once sensors become pervasive and cheap enough. Too some extent this is already done and enforced for disposing of blatantly dangerous things. In some cases you could end up in prison in addition to fines, if caught. The more subtle things that add up to a big problem have been given a lot of leeway. Right now it is profitable for many parties to extr…
It's been a long battle in many places to get people to properly dispose of their trash in a proper way, it's still way too easy to revert to prior behavior. In many places in the US, people have to pay a private company for disposal or haul their trash to a landfill (usually in more rural areas). So it's a very visible cost, making savage dumping more compelling.
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looks like a VAT cut, so I expect the EU commission will be after them too
Different VAT rates for different types of products are not a problem in EU, in fact almost all European countries also have a reduced VAT rate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_value_added_tax... Quite often the reduced rate applies e.g. to food, but it really can be any product category.
for quite a while the commission has attempted to reform VAT, ostensibly for a "simpler, more efficient and robust VAT system" with the intent of "broadening the tax base and limiting the use of reduced rates" to "generate new revenue streams", which is reported in the media as "EU wants to add VAT to food, childrens clothes and books".
[1]: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX...
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What if it's actually tremendously efficient to do it this way, in a way that is not inutitive to the layperson? There are many many other uses for oil and polymer and shipping capacity, and the plastic cutlery industry can leverage these incredible economies of scale.
A problem I have with systems of such complexity is that it feels basically unknowable whether or not this is true. It totally may be. On the otherhand, it might just be that we're basically subsidizing an incredibly expansive practice by creating enormous and complex upstream costs that we ignore in our current accounting.
[0] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1534286/12000-mile-tr...
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looks like a VAT cut, so I expect the EU commission will be after them too
It's perfectly legal to lower tax rates on certain products or services. Most EU countries already have multiple VAT rates; eg. in Austria food is taxed at 10% whereas most other stuff is taxed at 20%
there's a lot of rates which were grandfathered in when countries joined the EU, but lowering the VAT on any new products requires unanimous approval in the council.
all details are here: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/eu-vat-rul...
additionally, the commission wants to phase out reduced rates (see my other comment)