(not that we know where to repair it or how much it’d cost, we just throw it)
Edit : I can understand why taking two hours to repair something worth 20€ isn’t worth it though, e.g. a computer mouse, but even in such case we could standardize a minimum and have enterprises specialized in ensuring that spare parts are always available(, each costing a few euros).
Then instead of the longer task of repairing a circuit board, the consumer could easily swap it by h·er·im·self, or leave it to a pro who’d take less than 5mns.
(And the older circuit board would be sent for free and either repaired or stripped for parts)
(Transportation costs will be greatly reduced in the very near future with automation, but warehouses should exist less than 12h away)
I think the opposite is going to be true. One thing I noticed when I moved recently is that’s it’s getting cheaper to throw out perfectly good stuff and then buy it again rather than paying to have it shipped long distance too.
Wow
It also reminds me that it was apparently cheaper to destroy most of the military equipment when leaving Afghanistan than rapatriating it.