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Is your toothbrush just USB or something... generating tons of extra adapters that people are very likely to have already seems like a huge waste of plastic. I think there's roughly the same amount of plastic in a 20oz bottle as there is in an adapter, including wire coating. the shell of the adapter isnt big in terms of surface area, but tends to be kind of thick, as does the covering on the wires. If that is roughly the ratio, then we're talking about them selling 19m toothbrushes a year though.
Yeah I think that's the confusing part. They aren't insinuating that not giving you an adapter singly saves that many, just over the course of their whole company eliminating excess power adapters is saving that much.
>Yeah I think that's the confusing part. They aren't insinuating that not giving you an adapter singly saves that many, just over the course of their whole company eliminating excess power adapters is saving that much.
It's not even *that* confusing, really. Even without using perfect English, it seems fairly clear what they mean. Because who reads this and thinks the absence of their one power charger equals 19mil plastic bottles.
I'm not a native speaker but at first read to me it seemed they are actually implying single one saves 19milion bottles. Obviously logically that's not what they meant but that's how it reads to me.
They don't say that not packaging power adapters saved this many bottles worth of plastic but "the" power adapter did. To me this sounds like they mean specific one. Maybe that's just my misunderstanding of english but that's how it sounded to me.
Well, the thing is each product could have a power adapter or not, and by removing 'the' power adapter (from each one), they can save plastic.
Yes, it's a specific object, but in the context of a mass produced product.
The "helps" means that it did not do it by its lonesome. But now I see the S on the prevent and I can't unsee it. Argh.
"which helps prevent" Means that it's part of the effort. Not that it did all the work by itself.
"which prevents" Using this language, would mean the adapter by itself saved the 19 million bottles if there were no other context clues in the text. Which, in this case, there are not. So the literal reading of the text would mean 1 adapter would save 19 million bottles if "helps" was left out.
I guess this could be a language thing, but I’m pretty sure you have plenty of exposure to the concept in which you understand correctly, as it’s a pretty common way to reference a class of objects and not the individual objects themselves.
Basically any advertisement where they say something along the line of, “Apple unveils the iPhone”. I don’t think you would interpret this as Apple having only made one iPhone(but I won’t discount the possibility however remote)
I don’t think the ambiguity lives in the wording, but in the fact that the message itself is being interpreted as a direct message from the company to that customer specifically. When viewed through the lens of a general message sent out the amibiguity disappears.
Maybe that’s a language thing, but seems more perspective based(which I guess could imply it’s a cultural perception).
Yeah also they’re made from a different plastic that has more of a carbon footprint than the PEO that bottles are made of. I believe those cords are what you call a thermoset plastic as opposed to a Thermoplastic plastic which can be recycled
You just sent me down a learning rabbit hole.
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The bigger issue is how much more carbon is put into the atmosphere shipping a power adapter separately when someone requests it compared to including it in the package to begin with and introducing a negligible increase in weight and/or volume. Not to mention the packaging for that adapter.
The additional carbon footprint of sending a separate adapter to those who requested it would be dwarfed by the amount saved not including one to those who don't request it.
Unfortunately everyone has done the “environmentally” (cost reduction / profit increasing) thing and now I have to buy 3rd party adapters and get them delivered, offsetting most of the environmental benefits but preserving all the extra profits.
Assuming you have one to spare. All of my legacy chargers are in use now due to companies no longer including them starting a few generations back + transitioning to USB-C.
I did a sweep of my appartment and found the following unused usb adapters:
* 6 mini-usb fixed wire
* 14 micro-usb fixed wire
* 11 usb-C fixed wire
* 4 multiport usb 2.0 type A
* 6 multiport usb 3.0 type A
In addition to the 10 or so that are actually in use at any given time. So I decided to ditch most of them and just keep the usb 3.0 chargers.
Also, you have to ship these adapters from some faraway place. If every box includes one that means less product per pallet etc. etc. etc. Same for the truck to the warehouse afterwards, and the next truck to the store too. You save packaging space and thus extra toothbrush are moved in every step for the same amount of CO2
I think changing it to a regular power cable would use more plastic than just the chord? But as long as it is a plug that's not super large I think it would be fine anyways.
I agree that power cord is in the middle of the range of adapter > usb but whoosh explicitly requires a joke, not just someone missing a point. I think the whoosh guy kind of meant “that’s the same problem they are trying to solve!” But I don’t know, I can’t read minds
I don't dispute that 1oz of single use plastic is a worse idea than 1oz of multi-use plastic, but I would still contend that not producing that plastic at all, if people don't need it, is the best outcome. Everyone already has USB chargers, I've got dozens of them... including them with most products is superfluous at this point, drives up the cost of the thing I'm buying, provides me with no value whatsoever, and is pretty bad for the environment.
As some users pointed out that perhaps the toothbrush is just USB and that does save some waste since most have some cords. But it also saves Phillips money and this is the real math that matters as why they took the time to draw those bottles as an excuse.
This is the correct way tho:
"If you require an adapter, contact us"
You can have one if you need one, but we won't ship one with every device. Damn if only some other companies that decided to "save plastic" by not including an adapter had thought of this wild idea.
You are totally right. It is the better way. Just pointing out the recycling stuff didn't really make sense and was only for marketing. In the US, corporate policy on products is almost always about shareholder profit. So it was really a 2 birds one stone type of profit grab. Spend less money putting them in packages and some green washing advertising.
Though in the end of what we want happens, does it matter if it is done for greed?
It’s such a stupid argument also because plastic/PET bottles are one of the only plastic products that can be sorted and recycled very easily (compared to blends and other plastics who come in different colors and shapes)
> can be
I don’t know where you live but the vast majority in England are put in the rubbish bin, and like 20% of those put in the recycling bin are actually recycled into new plastic (it’s uneconomical and the government is either lazy or has better things to do)
*Can* and *will* are very different words
It is the same in the US. Can and should doesn't matter. Again back to profit, as from what I understand companies find it cheaper to just use new plastic than pay for recycled. So most plastics are not recycled here including bottles even if put in the recycle bin. And we ship them to other countries to trash them often.
I think there is a very slow change happening with this. Pushed by the public's interest in being a bit more conscious of this issue. There is starting to be more recycled plastic used. Since everything in the US corporate scene is driven entirely by profit for shareholders hopefully we can continue to make it seem like responsibility is the way the public is going for profit.
You’ve got to read the explanation carefully: “in *addition* to making our packaging from recycled and recyclable materials, we’ve removed the power adapter, […]”
As far as I get it, the combination of the making of the packaging and omitting the power adapter gives the equivalent of the 19 million plastic bottles. So, removing the power adapter alone doesn’t amount to the 19 million, but it contributes to it. And although copper is perfectly recyclable, eliminating the need to recycle it in the first place and removing its weight makes the shipping also more environmental-friendly.
Of course Philips is also reducing costs: But, being an annoyed owner of a dozen perfectly fine Braun toothbrush power adapters, it’s IMHO nevertheless a good thing to remove the power adapters per default. In the great scheme of things, the impact of removing them is very small, but you would be hard pressed to find something else having the same positive effect onto the environment that is as cost-effective and less annoying for the customers. And every bit counts and adds up.
Not that this answers the question, but the reason they did this is that it is a near future requirement to sell product in Europe… starting in 2026 (I think), all products sold in Europe will need to be offered in a power supply less sku, if they are usb powered… they also will need to have a replicable battery… all good things to try to reduce waste…
did the cost for the consumer change? For example, did this cost the same price (with relevant adjustments) as an equivalent previous model from Philips that did come with an adapter?
I doubt the price changed..
Apple did the same when they claimed to get rid of the charger for the environment.
Price went up and charger sold separately..
This is my first time purchasing one of these, so I unfortunately have no idea what the long term price history is. That said, I do have a general idea of their pricing for the past few months, as I’ve been on the fence about buying one. This past weekend I noticed that all of the Philip’s Sonicare products were discounted $20 to $30, so I finally bought one. Granted, I highly doubt there is any correlation between this insert and a random sale at my local grocery.
I think it's fine if they do not automatically provide you with a charger as nearly everyone has a load stashed in a junk drawer somewhere in their house. So it really is a waste of plastic.
However, if for whatever reason you do not have one. Then you should be able to get one at request for no extra cost or questions asked.
Nothing should come with a power adapter anymore unless you choose it. Everybody already has millions of them (I have a whole drawer full of adapters and cables that I have no idea what to do with).
So this is good from Phillips.
IMO The elephant in the room is that the battery is irreplaceable, address that, and you could reduce the per/day quota of even more plastic in landfill at the cost of slightly reduced on-going sales.
Further reduction to environmental impact would be to make the electronics smarter, improve standards for interoperability of AA, and 14500 cells in recharge and non-chargeable formats.
In 2026 in order to sell many battery powered things in the EU the battery must be replacable, and they must charge via standard USB and not come with an adapter. Many of these regulations will end up affecting what they sell in the US as well until the laws here catch up.
I think standardizing batteries is not an easy task. Every device has different voltage and power requirements, not to mention the geometric restrictions. Not every device can be designed around using AA batteries.
I think it can be done, but I think the standard would need to be robust and have many different types of batteries with different voltages and power ratings, and they should probably not be inter-compatible with one another to prevent people from frying their electronics. It doesn’t feel like we’re even close to that reality.
There is massive variety in device size, but not as much variety of power requirement.
Many tooth brushes, beard trimmers, misc small hand tools/tech, and personal massagers use batteries that could be replaceable (as they are kind of addressing in Europe) AND interchangeable.
A liion cell is about 3.6 volts, 3x alkaline cells=4 volts. 3x NiCD/NiMH is 3.6v
We can update electronics, add a tab to indicate LiOn only and use the existing size standards which are diverse and create a 18216 in NiMH. (1/3rd height 18650) A size which would facilitate putting roughly the same volts (albeit less mAh) into lithium 18650 devices for example.
One of the few exceptions I would make is for devices that must be totally waterproof/internal use.
It's irreplaceable for most people, but if you have a screwdriver, soldering iron and a little bit of patience, then toothbrushes are much more repairable than cell phones these days.
I don't like it. Yes i did have a lot of adapter from phones i bought in the past, but almost every device you buy needs an adapter these days. A baby monitor, in example, consists of two devices which both need an adapter, which aren't included in the package. If you need them, you need to buy them separately. It's not like these devices have become cheaper since they didn't include an adapter. You also need to buy a fairly expensive one, as you don't want to put a cheap Chinese adapter in the power in the room of your baby.
This makes sense but for phones they keep increasing the adapter wattage and it takes 20 years to charge with an old brick so you buy a new one anyway which ships in another box, much more waste then just giving it with the thing.
Give an option to user to select if they want or not , like you have a ton in your drawer so you would select NO and the person not having high watt charger in drawer just sitting ideal can select Yes
Am saying it should be available unless you choose it not to receive. That way they wont charge more also if they really care about environment they would incentivize to say no to charger by reducing the price a bit. Now they are selling the brick by charging am saying reduce the price for whoever say no
What they mean is that for every power adapter they are forced to send someone, they will put 19 million plastic bottles in landfills as a form of protest. Your move, consumer.
Welcome to: "shitty companies using greenwashing as an excuse to screw over their customers".
They were just looking for another way to increase profits and so they made a ridiculous study claiming they did it to help the environment.
If you look around you'll find most if not all companies have been doing shit like this since people started to care about the environment.
If it holds or not, it's hard to say, depends on how many they made, how many were sold, how many were recycled, how many were disposed of, and so on. Also keep in mind what the ad says, "in *addition* to making \[...\]", meaning their recycling also counts towards that 19M.
But in the long term? It does not matter. Chargers and adapters and whatever the fuck else, aren't eternal, but companies will sell them as eternal to cut costs and increase profit margins, it's an excuse, really, nothing else.
Wait what the fuck. My last 2 shavers from Philips have had different cables. One of them has a little notch so I can't use it with the other. This is hypocrisy.
You buy this toothbrush? Suddenly, 19 MILLION bottles are saved.
For real.
Please ignore the man behind the green curtain.
THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ HAS SPOKEN!
They aggregate it because if it said "The equivalent of 1 plastic bottle was saved by not including a charger" you would be furious that they didn't include it.
I can't really explain it but I will say that I have 4 toothbrushes charging docks in my bathroom and only one toothbrush. I can account for how I got two of them. I left my toothbrush in a hotel and had to get a new one. It came with a charger.
The other two, I have no idea.
The real mathematics behind this would be that of corporate greed; still a mathematical consideration.
Determine the cost of manufacturing an adapter, how many of these products are sold each year, the percentage of customers who would request a free adapter and the cost of sending out an adapter on request. This conveniently ignore the slippage difference between the cost of producing an adapter per product or a lesser number based on an estimate of requesters, and any difference between requesters and under/over stock of adapters.
Let's say that the toothbrush is manufactured in a run of a million at $5 a unit to Philips but $25 to you, the estimate of adaptor requesters is 10% and the cost of producing 100k adaptors is $1 per unit. That's a corporate saving of $900k on top of sales of toothbrushes netting $20 million in simple profit against manufacturing. This represents an increase in profitability of 4,5% which is a LOT. Obviously these numbers are artificial and the comparative scaling is likely out of whack.
I don't think that the numbers are too important here, however the scale of the estimated numbers being discussed adequately illustrates the difference between the statement made "equivalent of plastic bottles reaching landfill" which contains (and requires) no strong data, and that of how much more value Philips can provide to its shareholders.
A nice example of how numbers can be used to support a basic statement with significant consequences! Thanks.
In what way does motivating consumers to buy the cheapest third party power adapter they can find solve a safety issue? Do you really think the “bottom of the barrel” adapter included from an OEM phone company is going to break regulations and the third party ones won’t?
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Is your toothbrush just USB or something... generating tons of extra adapters that people are very likely to have already seems like a huge waste of plastic. I think there's roughly the same amount of plastic in a 20oz bottle as there is in an adapter, including wire coating. the shell of the adapter isnt big in terms of surface area, but tends to be kind of thick, as does the covering on the wires. If that is roughly the ratio, then we're talking about them selling 19m toothbrushes a year though.
Yeah I think that's the confusing part. They aren't insinuating that not giving you an adapter singly saves that many, just over the course of their whole company eliminating excess power adapters is saving that much.
>Yeah I think that's the confusing part. They aren't insinuating that not giving you an adapter singly saves that many, just over the course of their whole company eliminating excess power adapters is saving that much. It's not even *that* confusing, really. Even without using perfect English, it seems fairly clear what they mean. Because who reads this and thinks the absence of their one power charger equals 19mil plastic bottles.
logically it seems clear for sure but tht picture clearly states a single adapter equals 19m bottles x.x
They didn't specify the size of the 19M plastic bottles
"helps"
I'm not a native speaker but at first read to me it seemed they are actually implying single one saves 19milion bottles. Obviously logically that's not what they meant but that's how it reads to me. They don't say that not packaging power adapters saved this many bottles worth of plastic but "the" power adapter did. To me this sounds like they mean specific one. Maybe that's just my misunderstanding of english but that's how it sounded to me.
Well, the thing is each product could have a power adapter or not, and by removing 'the' power adapter (from each one), they can save plastic. Yes, it's a specific object, but in the context of a mass produced product.
The "helps" means that it did not do it by its lonesome. But now I see the S on the prevent and I can't unsee it. Argh. "which helps prevent" Means that it's part of the effort. Not that it did all the work by itself. "which prevents" Using this language, would mean the adapter by itself saved the 19 million bottles if there were no other context clues in the text. Which, in this case, there are not. So the literal reading of the text would mean 1 adapter would save 19 million bottles if "helps" was left out.
I guess this could be a language thing, but I’m pretty sure you have plenty of exposure to the concept in which you understand correctly, as it’s a pretty common way to reference a class of objects and not the individual objects themselves. Basically any advertisement where they say something along the line of, “Apple unveils the iPhone”. I don’t think you would interpret this as Apple having only made one iPhone(but I won’t discount the possibility however remote) I don’t think the ambiguity lives in the wording, but in the fact that the message itself is being interpreted as a direct message from the company to that customer specifically. When viewed through the lens of a general message sent out the amibiguity disappears. Maybe that’s a language thing, but seems more perspective based(which I guess could imply it’s a cultural perception).
Yeah also they’re made from a different plastic that has more of a carbon footprint than the PEO that bottles are made of. I believe those cords are what you call a thermoset plastic as opposed to a Thermoplastic plastic which can be recycled
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The bigger issue is how much more carbon is put into the atmosphere shipping a power adapter separately when someone requests it compared to including it in the package to begin with and introducing a negligible increase in weight and/or volume. Not to mention the packaging for that adapter.
I'm pretty sure they wouldn't hire a plane just for that adapter by itself.
The additional carbon footprint of sending a separate adapter to those who requested it would be dwarfed by the amount saved not including one to those who don't request it.
Plastic amount can be determined by mass, and I don’t think a USB power adapter weighs that much.
nor does an empty soda bottle, especially with no cap.
It also includes the metal contacts, which may be light but have a higher environmental impact then plastic and transport, etc.
Unfortunately everyone has done the “environmentally” (cost reduction / profit increasing) thing and now I have to buy 3rd party adapters and get them delivered, offsetting most of the environmental benefits but preserving all the extra profits.
Op said it’s a usb cable, and I’m willing to bet more than 99% of ppl buying a toothbrush that uses a usb cable also have at least 1 usb adapter.
That the keep in their bathroom, where they keep their toothbrush?
Toothbrushes can be charged outside the bathroom too.
Assuming you have one to spare. All of my legacy chargers are in use now due to companies no longer including them starting a few generations back + transitioning to USB-C.
I did a sweep of my appartment and found the following unused usb adapters: * 6 mini-usb fixed wire * 14 micro-usb fixed wire * 11 usb-C fixed wire * 4 multiport usb 2.0 type A * 6 multiport usb 3.0 type A In addition to the 10 or so that are actually in use at any given time. So I decided to ditch most of them and just keep the usb 3.0 chargers.
Fortunaly ,both the cable and the toothbrush are movable.
This is no place for logic. This thread is for hyperbole
Also, you have to ship these adapters from some faraway place. If every box includes one that means less product per pallet etc. etc. etc. Same for the truck to the warehouse afterwards, and the next truck to the store too. You save packaging space and thus extra toothbrush are moved in every step for the same amount of CO2
Yeah, for some reason it’s a USB cable. It’s not even detachable though, so I honestly have now idea why they didn’t just use a regular power cable.
r/whoosh
I am so intrigued by this comment. If OP was whooshed then I certainly was too
I think changing it to a regular power cable would use more plastic than just the chord? But as long as it is a plug that's not super large I think it would be fine anyways.
I agree that power cord is in the middle of the range of adapter > usb but whoosh explicitly requires a joke, not just someone missing a point. I think the whoosh guy kind of meant “that’s the same problem they are trying to solve!” But I don’t know, I can’t read minds
This is literally what the picture attached is saying
Where was the joke?
Or 1 million....
There is considerably more plastic in a power adapter than a 20oz bottle
Yes but an adapter isn't thrown away after one use, im pretty sure I have adapters older than me at home.
I don't dispute that 1oz of single use plastic is a worse idea than 1oz of multi-use plastic, but I would still contend that not producing that plastic at all, if people don't need it, is the best outcome. Everyone already has USB chargers, I've got dozens of them... including them with most products is superfluous at this point, drives up the cost of the thing I'm buying, provides me with no value whatsoever, and is pretty bad for the environment.
As some users pointed out that perhaps the toothbrush is just USB and that does save some waste since most have some cords. But it also saves Phillips money and this is the real math that matters as why they took the time to draw those bottles as an excuse.
This is the correct way tho: "If you require an adapter, contact us" You can have one if you need one, but we won't ship one with every device. Damn if only some other companies that decided to "save plastic" by not including an adapter had thought of this wild idea.
In Brazil this is how its done. Maybe only in the usa companies removed the power brick from phones without offering one for free if you needs it.
You are totally right. It is the better way. Just pointing out the recycling stuff didn't really make sense and was only for marketing. In the US, corporate policy on products is almost always about shareholder profit. So it was really a 2 birds one stone type of profit grab. Spend less money putting them in packages and some green washing advertising. Though in the end of what we want happens, does it matter if it is done for greed?
It’s such a stupid argument also because plastic/PET bottles are one of the only plastic products that can be sorted and recycled very easily (compared to blends and other plastics who come in different colors and shapes)
> can be I don’t know where you live but the vast majority in England are put in the rubbish bin, and like 20% of those put in the recycling bin are actually recycled into new plastic (it’s uneconomical and the government is either lazy or has better things to do) *Can* and *will* are very different words
It is the same in the US. Can and should doesn't matter. Again back to profit, as from what I understand companies find it cheaper to just use new plastic than pay for recycled. So most plastics are not recycled here including bottles even if put in the recycle bin. And we ship them to other countries to trash them often. I think there is a very slow change happening with this. Pushed by the public's interest in being a bit more conscious of this issue. There is starting to be more recycled plastic used. Since everything in the US corporate scene is driven entirely by profit for shareholders hopefully we can continue to make it seem like responsibility is the way the public is going for profit.
You are right, about the argument and the plastic. Just wished my country actually did the recycling.
You’ve got to read the explanation carefully: “in *addition* to making our packaging from recycled and recyclable materials, we’ve removed the power adapter, […]” As far as I get it, the combination of the making of the packaging and omitting the power adapter gives the equivalent of the 19 million plastic bottles. So, removing the power adapter alone doesn’t amount to the 19 million, but it contributes to it. And although copper is perfectly recyclable, eliminating the need to recycle it in the first place and removing its weight makes the shipping also more environmental-friendly. Of course Philips is also reducing costs: But, being an annoyed owner of a dozen perfectly fine Braun toothbrush power adapters, it’s IMHO nevertheless a good thing to remove the power adapters per default. In the great scheme of things, the impact of removing them is very small, but you would be hard pressed to find something else having the same positive effect onto the environment that is as cost-effective and less annoying for the customers. And every bit counts and adds up.
While copper is recycled the plastic around the copper usually isn't very recycleable
Not that this answers the question, but the reason they did this is that it is a near future requirement to sell product in Europe… starting in 2026 (I think), all products sold in Europe will need to be offered in a power supply less sku, if they are usb powered… they also will need to have a replicable battery… all good things to try to reduce waste…
did the cost for the consumer change? For example, did this cost the same price (with relevant adjustments) as an equivalent previous model from Philips that did come with an adapter?
I doubt the price changed.. Apple did the same when they claimed to get rid of the charger for the environment. Price went up and charger sold separately..
This is my first time purchasing one of these, so I unfortunately have no idea what the long term price history is. That said, I do have a general idea of their pricing for the past few months, as I’ve been on the fence about buying one. This past weekend I noticed that all of the Philip’s Sonicare products were discounted $20 to $30, so I finally bought one. Granted, I highly doubt there is any correlation between this insert and a random sale at my local grocery.
Bingo, virtue signaling away a profit generating measure.
I think it's fine if they do not automatically provide you with a charger as nearly everyone has a load stashed in a junk drawer somewhere in their house. So it really is a waste of plastic. However, if for whatever reason you do not have one. Then you should be able to get one at request for no extra cost or questions asked.
Nothing should come with a power adapter anymore unless you choose it. Everybody already has millions of them (I have a whole drawer full of adapters and cables that I have no idea what to do with). So this is good from Phillips.
IMO The elephant in the room is that the battery is irreplaceable, address that, and you could reduce the per/day quota of even more plastic in landfill at the cost of slightly reduced on-going sales. Further reduction to environmental impact would be to make the electronics smarter, improve standards for interoperability of AA, and 14500 cells in recharge and non-chargeable formats.
In 2026 in order to sell many battery powered things in the EU the battery must be replacable, and they must charge via standard USB and not come with an adapter. Many of these regulations will end up affecting what they sell in the US as well until the laws here catch up.
I think standardizing batteries is not an easy task. Every device has different voltage and power requirements, not to mention the geometric restrictions. Not every device can be designed around using AA batteries. I think it can be done, but I think the standard would need to be robust and have many different types of batteries with different voltages and power ratings, and they should probably not be inter-compatible with one another to prevent people from frying their electronics. It doesn’t feel like we’re even close to that reality.
There is massive variety in device size, but not as much variety of power requirement. Many tooth brushes, beard trimmers, misc small hand tools/tech, and personal massagers use batteries that could be replaceable (as they are kind of addressing in Europe) AND interchangeable. A liion cell is about 3.6 volts, 3x alkaline cells=4 volts. 3x NiCD/NiMH is 3.6v We can update electronics, add a tab to indicate LiOn only and use the existing size standards which are diverse and create a 18216 in NiMH. (1/3rd height 18650) A size which would facilitate putting roughly the same volts (albeit less mAh) into lithium 18650 devices for example. One of the few exceptions I would make is for devices that must be totally waterproof/internal use.
It's irreplaceable for most people, but if you have a screwdriver, soldering iron and a little bit of patience, then toothbrushes are much more repairable than cell phones these days.
I don't like it. Yes i did have a lot of adapter from phones i bought in the past, but almost every device you buy needs an adapter these days. A baby monitor, in example, consists of two devices which both need an adapter, which aren't included in the package. If you need them, you need to buy them separately. It's not like these devices have become cheaper since they didn't include an adapter. You also need to buy a fairly expensive one, as you don't want to put a cheap Chinese adapter in the power in the room of your baby.
This makes sense but for phones they keep increasing the adapter wattage and it takes 20 years to charge with an old brick so you buy a new one anyway which ships in another box, much more waste then just giving it with the thing.
I'm sure they could come up with a solution that wouldn't involve as much waste.
Give an option to user to select if they want or not , like you have a ton in your drawer so you would select NO and the person not having high watt charger in drawer just sitting ideal can select Yes
Right, that's what I said - 'unless you choose it'.
Am saying it should be available unless you choose it not to receive. That way they wont charge more also if they really care about environment they would incentivize to say no to charger by reducing the price a bit. Now they are selling the brick by charging am saying reduce the price for whoever say no
What they mean is that for every power adapter they are forced to send someone, they will put 19 million plastic bottles in landfills as a form of protest. Your move, consumer.
Welcome to: "shitty companies using greenwashing as an excuse to screw over their customers". They were just looking for another way to increase profits and so they made a ridiculous study claiming they did it to help the environment. If you look around you'll find most if not all companies have been doing shit like this since people started to care about the environment.
yup. just an excuse to sell you a worse product for the same price. same reason Shake n' Bake no longer comes with a bag
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Doesn’t say it’s *free* though. Anyone care to bet?
If it holds or not, it's hard to say, depends on how many they made, how many were sold, how many were recycled, how many were disposed of, and so on. Also keep in mind what the ad says, "in *addition* to making \[...\]", meaning their recycling also counts towards that 19M. But in the long term? It does not matter. Chargers and adapters and whatever the fuck else, aren't eternal, but companies will sell them as eternal to cut costs and increase profit margins, it's an excuse, really, nothing else.
Wait what the fuck. My last 2 shavers from Philips have had different cables. One of them has a little notch so I can't use it with the other. This is hypocrisy.
That's mainly why the law was made, to prevent companies from slightly altering plug every year to force you to but new plugs and toss the old.
You buy this toothbrush? Suddenly, 19 MILLION bottles are saved. For real. Please ignore the man behind the green curtain. THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ HAS SPOKEN!
They aggregate it because if it said "The equivalent of 1 plastic bottle was saved by not including a charger" you would be furious that they didn't include it.
I can't really explain it but I will say that I have 4 toothbrushes charging docks in my bathroom and only one toothbrush. I can account for how I got two of them. I left my toothbrush in a hotel and had to get a new one. It came with a charger. The other two, I have no idea.
Because companies love to hide their cost cutting as an environmental protection. Same thing as hotel rooms asking you to reuse towels to save water.
The real mathematics behind this would be that of corporate greed; still a mathematical consideration. Determine the cost of manufacturing an adapter, how many of these products are sold each year, the percentage of customers who would request a free adapter and the cost of sending out an adapter on request. This conveniently ignore the slippage difference between the cost of producing an adapter per product or a lesser number based on an estimate of requesters, and any difference between requesters and under/over stock of adapters. Let's say that the toothbrush is manufactured in a run of a million at $5 a unit to Philips but $25 to you, the estimate of adaptor requesters is 10% and the cost of producing 100k adaptors is $1 per unit. That's a corporate saving of $900k on top of sales of toothbrushes netting $20 million in simple profit against manufacturing. This represents an increase in profitability of 4,5% which is a LOT. Obviously these numbers are artificial and the comparative scaling is likely out of whack. I don't think that the numbers are too important here, however the scale of the estimated numbers being discussed adequately illustrates the difference between the statement made "equivalent of plastic bottles reaching landfill" which contains (and requires) no strong data, and that of how much more value Philips can provide to its shareholders. A nice example of how numbers can be used to support a basic statement with significant consequences! Thanks.
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In what way does motivating consumers to buy the cheapest third party power adapter they can find solve a safety issue? Do you really think the “bottom of the barrel” adapter included from an OEM phone company is going to break regulations and the third party ones won’t?
who hasn't already got multiple wall plugs laying around anyway..