Thanks to a short, but intense comment thread with William E. Chappell III, coauthor of this novel, I was able to revise last week’s post!
HBC Presents
It’s Our Destiny—Hadrian’s Eco-laws
Staring Founding Family Member Destiny Stuttgart
Here in Hadrian, we respect nature. We work to recycle all that is recyclable and avoid waste to the best of our ability. One aspect of human waste that became an extreme landfill problem in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries was the disposal of items that were reparable but too costly for customers to pursue that option. Big business capitalized on this by producing products intended to wear out, keeping the customer coming back for ‘newer’ versions. Even though the parts needed for a repair were available, they were so costly it was cheaper for the customer to opt for a new product.
In Hadrian, this business practice, accompanied by the consumer demand for newer, better, and faster devices, is unacceptable. One of the first laws put into place in our newly formed constitution is to outlaw this practice. Every business is required by law to offer an eleven-year product guarantee. If anything breaks down or wears out in that time, it is incumbent upon the manufacturer to repair the product.
Electronic corporations are amongst the worst culprits. They use the ever-growing technology as their excuse for constantly forcing customers to dispose of older devices and replace them with the newer, faster, cooler version. And amongst some of these corporate pirates, cellphone companies are the worst. These blaggards make it very hard for individuals to keep a phone for more than one or two years and have created a centuries-old issue that is finally coming to an end in Hadrian. No cell phone company will be able to operate within our borders or sell their ware to our citizens so long as they continue to create updates that bog down older phones. Hadrian laws are putting to an end company control of software that forces people to upgrade their phones unnecessarily by ensuring the newest upgrades are not compatible with the old hardware. Nor can they get away with offering support only for the latest update. As with all other products sold within Hadrian, the eleven-year guarantee will force these corporate criminals in line.
Customers, too, will be held to a high standard. Once you have purchased an item, you cannot replace it during those eleven years. Every citizen of our good country is expected to repair and reuse all product s purchased. We must all strive to keep from filling our landfill sites with useable material. In Hadrian, we will not burden the earth with the human obsession for material gain.
So, take care of your bubble if you qualify for a personal vehicle, keep all kitchen instruments, tools, and recreational devices clean, oiled and in good condition. Manual items may be more work to use, but they last longer and are easier to repair. Remember, buy wisely and make sure you understand the inner workings of your material goods, as you will not be replacing them for a minimum of eleven years. Our landfill sites will contain waste and only waste!
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