What is a renewable item?

"Shouldn't this be a durable item, really?"

We always hear about renewable energy sources, but do you ever stand still and consider that the word renewable refers to more than just energy?

Let’s start thinking about renewable items as it seems to me that we can do a lot more about those in our daily lives than we can when making a choice of our energy suppliers.

First of all, what is a “renewable item”? Electrical items often come with ‘renewables’ associated with them: think of your printer (an item to use until it dies) vs the ink cartridges (renewable as they have to be replaced regularly). Fairly obvious, right? Those cartridges are no different from using up a pencil, a kitchen sponge, toilet paper, and then replacing them when you run out.

The difference appears to be mainly a question of durability and how much multiple use an item can withstand. Wear and tear play a role here, of course. But there are other forces at play here, some of which have nothing to do with the item itself, but rather in its production and the fact that someone is making money out of selling you replacements.

Even the division into renewable items and items for continuous use has become more of a grey zone over the last hundred years or so. Think about items like diapers, disposable razors, fast fashion, plastic bottles, etc.: at some point not too long in the past all those were NOT renewables, but things to clean and reuse.

More often than not, it comes down to what we perceive as convenient: most people – when faced with washing diapers – will quickly return to the disposable ones. Nobody wants to carry around a glass bottle filled with water, although some giant drinking bottles aren’t actually more convenient than a glass bottle.

Much of what we use today is made to be thrown away to make it more convenient, and we fall for it. How many single-use coffee cups have you thrown out lately? They sound more environmentally friendly these days, but they are still covered in a thin layer of plastic to keep the cardboard from dissolving, which makes (most of) them difficult if not impossible to recycle. Unless you bring your own reusable cup, you are still adding to the rubbish bin.

On top of that, many of the items that are meant to be durable are produced with planned obsolescence in mind: they break earlier in order to make us buy a replacement. On top of that, we are also being brainwashed into replacing fully functional products with the latest version (“with improved icons”). Be honest: how many working electronic devices are hiding in a drawer at your house? Most of them will only be guilty of having been replaced when a newer, shinier model came on the market?

Consider this: maybe a slightly more expensive item that does its job for a long time is preferable to a cheap one that you have to replace on the regular?