Dear Apple and Google: We Don’t Need New Phones Every Year……

….. and we really wish we could stop landfilling the toxic chemicals in our old, perfectly good electronics.  We are becoming increasingly aware of the issues associated with sustainability, and you could help us by selling us less stuff we really don’t need.

Consumer electronics manufacturers could argue, of course:

They drive the economy and offer jobs (largely to the Chinese), or

That it’s up to the consumer to stop buying things they don’t need.

The latter is the same argument made by the manufacturers of soda and bottled water, whose plastic containers are ruining our waterways: If you don’t want plastic, don’t buy it.

Obviously, there is a certain level of truth here, but the Nestles and Coca Colas of the world, could, instead of lying about how much plastic is recycled, develop new packaging solutions, or, better yet, morph into products that aren’t valueless (like bottled water) or actual poison (like soda).