Response to "The Story of Electronics" Video by Annie Leonard

In this video, Anne Leonard talks about how electronics are "designed for the dumps", as in-made in a way so it could be broken easily in order to drive you to buy a new one, therefore allowing companies to make more money. It is impossible to get a broken device fixed. This has happened to me so many times. I walked into the store hoping to get my phone fixed and I leave the store with a new phone I paid $200 for. They put the price high in order to convince you to buy a new item for a few dollars less, making you think that you're saving money.  These devices contain toxic materials such as mercury and flame retardants. These chemicals not only cause harm to our environment, but also to our bodies. "Workers making computer chips had 40% more miscarriages, together with having blood, brain, and/or kidney cancer" (Leonard). In order to get rid of this issue, we need to buy less, have regulations on companies and small businesses, and become educated on what we could do in order for these useless electronic products to be properly recycled. Workers who often work with these materials are from developmental countries that have no access to protective gears that can stop the intake of high chemical exposures. We need to go to its source. In order to make less trash, we need to use less trash. In my opinion, we should make companies get rid of warranty policies, and actually buy back broken products, and use its parts to create a new product. They can even consider to fix a customer's device instead of indirectly convincing them to purchase a new and improved one. We can even set regulations on the amount of trash each companies or small businesses throw away, and force violation fees to those who choose to not follow these regulations. We could even force electronic companies to make their products safer and long lasting. If manufacturers decide to take responsibility for the recycling of their own products, the problem will decrease incredibly. We need to sacrifice in order to save the planet we live on.