Skip to main content

Printers And The Ballad Of The Throwaway Society

Today, I have to do a very frightening thing. No, not restock the Tassimo stash. I know, I know, that's probably what you were thinking first but no. I have been quite good and, apart from lacking green tea discs (actually, if I'm going out anyway....) I have been quite good.

No. What I need is a printer cartridge. And I know how much it's going to cost me and I am oh so displeased. But I am out of ink. Not just low, OUT. My printer has been bleeping piteously at me for several days and every document is a gamble. But now, alas, there is no more blood in the stone and as I have printing to do, out I go.

I am interested in knowing exactly WHAT in that small plastic doohickey (that's technospeak, that is) that is worth forty dollars. Forty. Dollars. Of my hard earned money. And, as some may tell you... that's getting off easy.

Years ago, I went shopping for a new printer. Not this one, a predecessor. I walked into a store and asked for an inexpensive printer that would meet my needs. Nothing super glam. Preferably with color ink capability. And I was shown a printer for (I kid you not) $19.99. It was on sale and a relatively good make as I recall. I did a happy dance as my printer budget was much higher. Ahh... but then I asked the question. How much do replacement cartridges cost?

I was shocked to find out that they would cost in the neighborhood of one hundred dollars or more. Excuse me, what? How much was that again? I was told that this particular printer was being sold so that when it ran out of ink you. Threw. The. Whole. Printer. Away.

Now this seems ridiculous to me. More than just a titch environmentally unfriendly. Not that I am the greenest person around. But it seems to me that the idea of buying something and throwing it out when one part breaks or wears out is terrible.

A long time ago, people fixed things. Now, we throw them away. And our landfills loom and our air is poisoned and we can't figure out why the quality is so poor in the things we buy. But its simple. It's our fault and until we get over the idea that we need to have the latest and the best we are not going to get anywhere, no matter how good we feel for rinsing out a soup can and putting it in the blue box once in a while.

Needless to say, I did not buy the cheap printer. I went with another model that was about twice the price and began to shell out money every month or two for new ink. And felt a bit better about the whole thing. And will continue to do so, even as I feel the irony of brewing my Tassimo hot chocolate and disposing of the empty T-disc as I head out the door.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I Hate Laundry: An Open Letter to the Universe

You may wonder why, after so many months of silence, I have chosen to make the subject of 2011's first post about laundry. There is a simple explanation for this. I hate laundry. I really, really do. I loathe it with the same depth of hatred that is normally reserved for spiders and white supremacists. I detest it on not one, but many levels. Oh laundry, I hate thee, let me count the ways. 1. For you are never truly, TRULY complete. Even if I choose to streak about my house so that every last stitch makes it into the machine, I never fail to locate a sock, or a shirt or a pair of child-sized pants balled into as small a bundle as possible and hidden somewhere about my house. 2. For I have small children who feel that wearing a vest once, or looking at an old Hallowe'en costume or not feeling like putting clean clothes away makes them dirty, so my baskets overflow with items that should not be there. Of course, having been put into the basket the clean socks that are still fol...
1 comment
Read more

Lessons I Have Learned From My Chinchilla

Having a chinchilla has taught me many things. Not all of them good, not all of them actually useful, but many of them interesting. For those of you who are not aware of what a chinchilla is, it is a small rodent about the same size as a mitten (conveniently). Their fur is very warm and very soft. They have long ears like a rabbit and a long tail like a squirrel. When they are hiding behind your couch in order to surprise you with their presence, it looks very much like a squirrel has climbed into your home (through a broken dryer hose perhaps) and is hiding behind your couch. This is only distressing when you left it shut up in its cage in the basement the night before. Here are some lessons that I have learned from the chinchilla: 1. Even the worst book is still tasty (sorry dear, we can go book shopping when you get home to replace the nibbled volumes) 2. You don't need thumbs to open things (like cage doors). You do need thumbs to open metal clips placed on cage doors. Humans a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tassimo Update

So, as many of you know, I have a Tassimo. Sadly, it has been some time since it burbled happily away on my counter, bringing forth steaming hot cups of individual deliciousness. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, my bank account has yelled at me about the need to do adult stuff such as paying bills and buying nourishing food for my children before purchasing those lovely T-discs. Then, just when I had decided that it was time for a green tea in all its grassy goodness, I clicked it on and a new light appeared. It was red the color of bad . The color of broken. The color of no delicious beverages now or ever. I bowed my head and said a silent prayer for the hot boozy bevvies I could no longer enjoy. I looked in my book and found that all it needed was descaling. Easy, right? Just run vinegar, that miracle of miracles through the machine and all would be well. Oh, but this is a Tassimo, right? A fine, pedigreed beverage maker such as this is too good for mere vinegar. In fact...
1 comment
Read more