Google Chromebooks expire too quickly, saddling taxpayer-funded public faculties with extreme bills and inflicting pointless environmental harm, based on the US Public Curiosity Analysis Group (PIRG) Training Fund. The Register reviews: In a report on Tuesday, titled “Chromebook Churn,” US PIRG contends that Chromebooks do not final so long as they need to, as a result of Google stops offering updates after 5 to eight years and since machine repairability is hindered by the shortage of spare elements and repair-thwarting designs. This deliberate obsolescence, the group claims, punishes the general public and the world.
“The 31 million Chromebooks bought globally within the first yr of the pandemic characterize roughly 9 million tons of CO2e emissions,” the report says. “Doubling the lifetime of simply Chromebooks bought in 2020 may lower emissions equal to taking 900,000 automobiles off the street for a yr, greater than the variety of automobiles registered in Mississippi.” The report says that excluding extra upkeep prices, longer lasting Chromebooks may save taxpayers as a lot as $1.8 billion {dollars} in {hardware} alternative bills.
The US PIRG stated it desires: Google to increase its ChromeOS replace coverage past present machine expiration dates; {hardware} makers to make elements extra accessible so their units will be repaired; and {hardware} designs that allow simpler half alternative and repair. […] In accordance with US PIRG, making a median laptop computer releases 580 kilos of carbon dioxide into the environment, amounting to 77 % of the full carbon impression of the machine throughout its lifetime. Thus, the 31 million Chromebooks bought throughout the first yr of the pandemic characterize about 8.9 million tons of CO2e emissions. “We predict that Google ought to prolong the automated replace expiration to 10 years after launch date,” stated Lucas Gutterman, who leads US PIRG’s Designed to Final marketing campaign. “There’s simply no motive why we must be throwing away a pc that also is in any other case useful simply because it passes a sure date.”
“We’re asking Google to make use of their management among the many OEMs to design the units to final, to make a few of the modifications that we listing, to have them be extra simply repairable by truly producing spare elements that people should buy at cheap costs,” he added. “And to design with modularity and restore in thoughts, in an effort to, for instance, use the plastic bezel on one Chromebook on the following model, relatively than having to purchase an entire new set of spare elements simply because a clip has modified.”
