It is not just simply an environmental cost - there are other costs associated with the preponderance of disposable possessions, and the leaking over into the category of disposable of things that were once considered permanent.
To start with, it is simply wasteful for the reasons you describe. However it also contributes in a small way to the paradigm of exponential growth that permeates everything about human civilisation, which we as hackers know represents certain death.
EDIT: I'm not saying google have created a "disposable computer." However all this advertising definitely shifts us culturally in that direction.
I'd love to have a laptop whose sum parts are made out of reusable/biodegradable materials as much as possible.
Corn/potato based cases, even if they need to be replaced often - or solid aluminum ones that are a set form factor and I simply replace the guts every time I upgrade.
I wish that apple would require/request/desire that any old apple product gets returned to them for disposal/credit when it reaches true EOL.
It has been said too many times by others greater than myself; Our garbage and waste will be the downfall of our species.
Unfortunately it's prohibitively expensive compared to conventional options, as you would expect. And you obviously can't fab the boards from card and the chips from potato, as it were.
>It has been said too many times by others greater than myself; Our garbage and waste will be the downfall of our species.
We can learn to recycle our waste. Mining landfill is going to be big business one day. It will however be much harder to repair the environmental and human damage caused by the extraction of the raw materials in the first place.
The case is probably the most recyclable part of a computer, unless there's something funky about the plastics used. An aluminum MacBook Pro case could be melted down, or, hell, probably used as-is as raw material to machine new small parts.
To start with, it is simply wasteful for the reasons you describe. However it also contributes in a small way to the paradigm of exponential growth that permeates everything about human civilisation, which we as hackers know represents certain death.
EDIT: I'm not saying google have created a "disposable computer." However all this advertising definitely shifts us culturally in that direction.