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| Our huge ten years old TV. |
A couple of weeks ago, the lamp on our TV just stopped working and it was time for it to be replaced. Our first instinct was, that it is a ten years old TV and we have spend so much on the lamp. It is not worth it. It is better to just get rid of it and buy a new one that is LED system and does not need replacement. The new Televisions are getting a lot cheaper these days . (We bought it for thousands of dollars with financing, back then).
All the friends that we talked to, thought the same. But something in me was very uneasy about the convenient and easy road. The guilt was bugging me. I felt very stubborn about finding an alternative solution. I personally was doing very good without a Television and if i needed to watch something, my computer was perfect. But my family likes the Television and they felt something was missing.
Our options were, We could do what everybody else would do and instead of dumping it in the dumpster, recycle it. But i am not a big fan of recycling either and i do it only in cases of the lack of better alternative.
In general, any kind of none biodegradable waste, makes me uncomfortable.
(since our electronics most probably would be shipped to India by a huge cargo ship to be broken in pieces). Then i felt bad about recycling a huge TV that all it needs is a lamp. It has been a great TV and the quality has been wonderful.
Then I thought what if we just buy a lamp and replace it, then if we still want the new TV, we can sell this one for the price of the lamp. This way, it is not going to turn in to garbage and someone else could use it.
Couple of night ago, we had some wonderful friends over and they mentioned that their TV is needing lamps too and they have been buying it from Amazon.com.
My lovely husband checked there and surprise!!! He found it for $40. Yes. Only $40 will give us another few years of wonderful quality TV.
So my point is, always check to see if something is repairable before replacing it. If we were not living a green life and were not worried about waste creation, we would have discard the TV, create a huge amount of waste, spend lots of time locating and choosing a TV and would have probably spend tons of money to buy a new one.
So, what we saved in this process was:
. The environment.
. Lots of time.
. Lots of money
and the most important thing is the life lesson our kids are learning from this decision.
We still have to take a trip to the electrical recycling center, but it would be for the Mercury containing lamp, not the whole Television.
What have you repaired lately?
Our car! Much to the amusement of our friends and family we have an old car (1996) that takes us everywhere. Even on long trips abroad. People are amazed and keep asking us: do you still have that old car? The thing is, it is still in quite good shape and I feel bad about getting rid of it.
ReplyDeleteThis is great.I am proud of you. Unfortunately we are addicted to newness. Everybody tells us, why not just buy a new one. I tend to answer, why not just repair and keep the old one?
DeleteSame with shoes, by the way. You would be amazed how new your shoes can look after repair and thorough polishing. You can fall in love twice with the same pair of shoes, is my experience :-)
ReplyDeleteSo true. It is funny that I just finished repairing a pair of shoes and it is going to be my next post. Stay tuned for the next week's post.
ReplyDelete