Cell phone companies typically allow free or very inexpensive upgrades every two years. Your cell phone carrier subsidizes the cost of the phone purchase if you sign a two year contract. This leads people to stop using working cell phones simply because there is something newer, possibly with more features. The “dead cell phone” drawer, with discarded phones, PDAs, and MP3 players, and a tangle of chargers and cords, is a common occurrence in homes.

In 2009, broadcasters switched from analog to digital TV signal. Millions of Americans tossed out perfectly good, working analong TVs either because they don’t want to hassle with using a converter box on their old TV, or they want to view TV using the HDTV technology. TV company advertising boldly tells us we NEED to upgrade to HDTV. Sharp had an ad campaign in 2009 whose slogan is “Change your TV, change you life.” They even used the website of www.lifechangingbox.com

Did your last computer come with a “free” printer? Cheap consumer-grade printers have proliferated substantially over the last few years. They are sometimes cheaper than the toner. They don’t last long, and when they break, you’d never even think of getting it fixed (if you could find someone who would do it) because it’s so much cheaper to just buy a new one. Printer companies do this because they make more money on selling us their toner.

Microsoft’s release of its VISTA operating system alone caused a spike in the e-waste stream. The new operating system simply couldn’t run on many older computers which lacked the memory or processing speed, leading those who wanted to keep up with the current platform to replace their computers.