Disturbing report reveals why people are treating Chromebooks as ‘disposable’: ‘The hardware is crap’

For many people, back-to-school shopping means buying notebooks and folders. But now, students are buying laptops — and in many cases, they have to buy a new one every year.

One person on Reddit vented about the massive waste generated by this trend.

“Chromebooks Are Trash (Literally),” they wrote. “A new report from U.S. PIRG finds that Chromebooks’ cheap design and short lifespan means people are treating them as disposable, and is creating piles of ewaste.”

The Public Interest Research Group report they referenced centers on this “Chromebook churn.” It’s primarily because the laptops are poorly made with cheap materials. “The hardware is crap out of the gate,” one Redditor wrote.

Furthermore, they’re designed to become obsolete in a matter of years. The laptops stop receiving software updates after a pre-planned amount of time — often as short as one year — after which they are unable to function, even though the device itself is still usable.

“So much waste just to make a bit of cash,” one person vented.

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And beyond the individual expense, there’s a great environmental cost. “Manufacturing a computer consumes a great deal of resources,” PIRG reported. “In fact, some estimate that the information technology sector is responsible for about as much greenhouse gas emissions as the airline industry.”

Furthermore, they explained, it’s not a problem that can be recycled away. “When technology like Chromebooks reach their expiration date, only one-third of this electronic waste is properly recycled,” PIRG stated.

One Redditor pointed out the irony that this waste, which endangers future generations, is being mandated by schools.

“The parents have to buy a chrome book for their kid so they end up buying the cheaper ones and then replacing it after a few years,” one person explained. “It’s really so ridiculously wasteful and pointless.”

Another Redditor agreed, calling them “EXTREMELY cheaply made & poorly designed.”

With a growing awareness of the pollution generated by this approach, more consumers are looking to move away from these deliberately poorly made items. For example, a similar Reddit post recently excoriated a beverage-warming thermos that ran on non-rechargeable and non-replaceable batteries, rendering it more or less single-use.

Instead, many shoppers are buying durable goods secondhand, upcycling clothes, and repurposing items around the house to keep their dollars from supporting the cycle of obsolescence and waste.

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