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Costing the Earth

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Costing the Earth: Made to Last?

Made to Last?

02/05/2017

BBC Radio 4 - Costing the Earth, Made to Last?

How long do you expect your electronic gadgets and clothes to last? Time to fight back.

Jheni Osman is at breaking point with short-life gadgets and clothes breaking too soon. She meets the fixers, campaigners and retailers who say we should expect more.

How long do you reasonably expect your electronic gadgets and clothes to last? Has the cheapening of products meant we're too ready to let them go when they break and buy new? Jheni Osman is sick of things breaking and the energy and resources that went to making them going to waste. She meets those who are fighting back and lengthening the lifecycle of their goods. Around the country those who lack the skills or know-how to fix things are learning how in community parties and online. But some products are now being built so they're difficult or costly to repair. She meets the campaigners who are calling for companies to be upfront about the life expectation of a product alongside the price tag and learns how some companies are offering a 'lifetime product' with repairs and replacements offered if the items break. Is this the way more companies will go or is it commercial suicide? 
Can the fulfilment of fixing a laptop or amp transfer to clothing? We hear why we'll only go a certain way to 'make do and mend' but how even retailers, who've been part of the fast fashion fad, are pioneering new techniques to reuse clothes, find new fabrics and make them last longer. Can the new frock feelgood factor translate to making clothes last longer. 
Presented by Jheni Osman and Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

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