<"Still Life:
Discarded Refrigerator
& Dishwasher"
& Dishwasher"
Take I
Photo by: The Squawker>
<i.>
We just had our refrigerator replaced recently, as part of an annual, city-mandated inspection. Actually, the lead maintenance man didn't expect to replace it. The issue came up when I pointed out that the rubber gasket seal had started to crack, forcing me to slap some duct tape on it as a temporary workaround, until they figured out what to do with it.
After doing some checking, though, the maintenance team returned, and explained that they'd have to replace it, after all. That's because our refrigerator dated back to 2001, making it nearly 20 years old, and the chances of getting a replacement gasket -- or, for that matter, a replacement anything -- seemed remote, at best, and a crap shoot that our complex couldn't win, at worst.
"It's weird," the lead maintenance man said, "because normally they don't last this long. Nowadays, you're lucky to have one for 10 years."
"Well, just think back to those all jokes in MAD, about planned obsolescence..." I responded. "Here's to the new one, I guess."
<"Still Life:
Discarded Refrigerator
& Dishwasher"
Take II
Photo by: The Squawker>
Take II
Photo by: The Squawker>
<ii.>
The new fridge duly arrived, a week later or so, and I have to say, it's a massive improvement over the old one, which was groaning under the burden of two cracking shelf pieces (requiring more duct tape surgery), and a serious shortage of storage space. The current one is a Whirlpool model, which feels a bit roomier, and better-organized. This is what you get, after all, with new, or nearly new, and it feels good.
That's what inspired us to drive by and shoot the above photos, as The Squawker did. Was that our refrigerator squatting on that concrete pad, in the rear parking lot?
No, it wasn't. This one happened to be narrower and boxier, in terms of its design. Nor had the previous owner bothered to clean it, as we quickly discovered, when we poked open the door... and snapped it quickly back shut.
As for the dishwasher behind it, who knows where that came from? Maybe the same tenant owned both items, or maybe not. I've seen about three or four of them on that concrete pad lately, which tells me something about their average life span, I think.
There's some interesting info on how refrigerators get recycled, which needs to happen roughly every 14 years, as the article below states. (Recycling dishwashers, on the other hand, gets a bit trickier, as that link will outline.) Given those odds, Squawker and I got off lucky, I guess.
At any rate, the dishwasher is long gone, since Squawker snapped these photos last week, but the refrigerator is still waiting for its sendoff to that Great Appliance Corral in the Sky. It's all part and parcel of life's rich pageant, as say -- or the litter bin of American capitalism. So it goes. -- The Reckoner
Links To Go
Junk King
Three Tips For Disposing
Of Your Old Dishwasher:
Three Tips For Disposing
Of Your Old Dishwasher:
Recycle Nation
How To Recycle Refrigerators:
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