Durable good

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A car (Toyota Corolla S) is a durable good in economics.

In economics, a durable good or a hard good is a good which does not quickly wear out, or more specifically, it yields services or utility over time rather than being completely used up when used once. Most goods are therefore durable goods to a certain degree. Perfectly durable goods never wear out.

Examples of durable goods include cars, appliances, business equipment, electronic equipment, home furnishings and fixtures, houseware and accessories, photographic equipment, recreational goods, sporting goods, toys and games.

Nondurable goods or soft goods are the opposite of durable goods. They may be defined either as goods that are used up when used once, or that have a lifespan of less than 3 years.

Examples of nondurable goods include cosmetics, food, cleaning products, office supplies, packaging and containers, paper and paper products, personal products, rubber, plastics, textiles, clothing, footwear and most services.

Durable goods, nondurable goods and services together constitute the consumption of an economy.

[edit] Waste minimisation

Product durability is a way of reducing waste and in the majority of cases extension of the life of a product can make a major contribution to resource optimisation.

There are however some instances where extending the life of an item could actually be a negative approach in total environmental terms. The past decade has seen remarkable technological achievements with the widespread use of the microchip; these advances in technology are likely to continue with improvements in the efficiency of a host of appliences and machinery. The design of an item with too much durability may mean replacement with newer technology is likely to be delayed. For example, a washing machine produced 10 years ago, may typically use double the amount of water , detergent and energy to one produced today. Extending the useful life of products may place a heavier burden on the environment than sending the old products to be scrapped, recycled. Motor cars are another example: generally old vehicles consume more fuel and produce more emissions than their modern counterparts.

In many respects the way forward is to look at any manufactured product as not being waste at the end of its useful life for its intended purpose but rather as a resource for recycle and reuse. Recycling is aided by the use of fewer different materials in a single product, for example the recent switch by car manufacturers to use only three or four types of plastic, instead of more than twenty, has simplified the recovery of plastics from scrap cars. Sometimes a combination of paper and plastic , or plastic coating on glass, enables a product to fulfill its role with the minimum resources, but, because of the mixed materials, it is harder to recycle, than for example - an all paper item.

There will always be some conflict between reducing to a minimum the resources used to make a product and the possibility of reuse of, or recycling, the product. For example, in order to make a refillable glass bottle strong enough to withstand several trips between consumer and bottling plant, the bottle must be made stronger, which uses more glass. The heavier the container, the more transport needed to carry it, and its contents, to a destination. Transport has a large environmental impact, therefore there has to be a careful evaluation of the number of return trips each bottle makes set against the increased resource used in making it refillable. If the refillable bottle is thrown away and not returned, or only refilled once or twice, the resources wasted are greater than if the bottle had been designed for single use.

Many choices involve a trade off, as far as environmental impact is concerned, and often there is insufficient information on which to base those choices.