85502 Chap.11 Waste, Obsolescence and Repair
Waste, Obsolescence and Repair
History from the perspective of waste
Week 11 shows design history changing when seen through waste and disposal, from waste’s short history to its rapid growth in the modern capitalist era.
Systemic waste
The lecture covers planned and systemic obsolescence, product longevity and packaging, and how fashion, technological change and capitalism fuel cycles of consumption and disposal.
It critiques recycling as a flawed solution and discusses repair and reuse.
Presentations begin
Half of each studio presents Assessment 2 research in progress this week.
Why it matters for designers
The lecture makes waste a design question rather than a personal failing.
Lifespan, repairability and packaging are decisions taken in studios and boardrooms, which means they can be taken differently.
An image from the shoreline
The page shows plastiglomerate gathered on a Hawaiian beach in 2012, rock and plastic fused into one material.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The short history of waste
- 02
Planned and systemic obsolescence
- 03
Packaging and product longevity
- 04
Why recycling is a flawed solution
- 05
Repair and reuse, past and present
- 06
Plastiglomerate as a present-day artefact
- 07
Assessment 2 presentations in Week 11
- 08
Waste as a design decision
Worked example · free
Trace one product through the cycle of disposal
- 1Purchase: low price and packaging encourage replacement rather than care.
- 1Obsolescence: sealed parts make it planned; a change in device ports can make it systemic.
- 1Disposal: mixed materials make recycling partial at best, the lecture’s critique.
- 1Intervention: replaceable cables and available parts would let repair extend its life.
Key terms
- Planned obsolescence
- Designing or marketing products so they are replaced sooner than they need to be.
- Systemic obsolescence
- Products made unusable by changes in the systems around them rather than in the products themselves.
- Plastiglomerate
- A stone-like material in which rock and sediment are fused with melted plastic.
Waste, Obsolescence and Repair FAQ
Why does the Week 11 lecture criticise recycling?
Because it treats recycling as a flawed solution within the systems that produce waste: it returns only part of the material and leaves the cycle of consumption and disposal running. The lecture sets repair and reuse against it as ways of extending product lifetimes and reducing waste.
What is the difference between planned and systemic obsolescence?
Planned obsolescence is a decision inside the product, such as parts that cannot be replaced or marketing that makes last year’s model look dated. Systemic obsolescence happens when the systems around a working product change, such as software or networks it depends on.
What happens in the Week 11 tutorial?
Half of each studio presents its Assessment 2 research in process, and everyone is expected to attend to support classmates. The studio also completes the student feedback survey. Week 11 presenters are judged with fair consideration for having had one less week.
What are the required readings for the waste lecture?
Two short online pieces: Justin McGuirk’s 2022 Aeon essay arguing that ours is the waste age, and a 2021 Visual Capitalist graphic by Venditti and Belan on how much human-made material has built up on Earth. Recommended reading adds Robertson on plastiglomerate, Strasser on the stewardship of objects, Mattern on the cardboard box and Crosby and Stein on repair.
Why is plastiglomerate on the Week 11 page?
The page image shows samples of plastiglomerate collected at Kamilo Beach in Hawai’i in 2012 by a geologist and a sculptor: rock fused with plastic. The recommended essay presents it as a defining design history object of our moment, a product of design that no designer intended.
How does waste connect to earlier weeks?
Repair needs skill, so the decline of repair belongs with the Week 2 story of deskilling. Cheap disposable goods depend on the cheap energy described in Week 8. And Armstrong’s Week 3 reading shows industrial designers in the 1940s openly promoting obsolescence, which links waste to the history of the design profession itself.
How can I connect waste to my Assessment 2 artefacts?
Ask what happened to each artefact after it was used. A museum object was kept, catalogued and cared for, while many everyday objects of the same kind were thrown away, recycled or repaired. That contrast, between what survives and what does not, can become the connecting concept the template asks you to build a case around.
Assessment move
List five things you threw away this week and note for each whether obsolescence was planned or systemic. Read the required essay on the waste age with a pencil and mark every claim that is about systems rather than individuals. If waste is one of your Assessment 2 themes, research what happened to each of your artefacts after use.
Before your presentation week, ask one classmate to name the strongest idea in your talk, and check it matches the claim you intended.
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