This is a Discussion post: In bold is the question and below that is the response. Please respond to the below response and be very detailed in the response.

Which is better A program that increases recycling or a program that increases the lifetime of products. Provide examples and practical situations.

I think that a program that increases the lifetime of products is better.

A longer lifetime for products could offer benefits to both consumers and companies. A negative effect of the lifetime of a product comes from the manufacturers fear of loss of sales and market share. However, making products with a longer life span can bring upon new business opportunities like engaging in product service, maintenance, reuse, repair, or remanufacturing. Consumers also benefit from a longer life of products in the economic sense. Longer lifetimes mean not having to incur frequent unit replacement costs. For example, traffic cameras cost around $7,000 per unit and they have a lifetime of about 10 years. The good thing is that when they fail, the cost of repairing them is cheap. The average price to troubleshoot and repair these cameras is under $300. A few years ago, we looked at a few cameras that retailed for about half the price. After putting them through rigorous testing we found that they would only be good for about 4 years and since no spare parts were offered by the manufacturer, the whole unit would need to be replaced once it failed. The lower cost of the product did not make up for the costs incurred in the long run. We decided to stick with the original product offering a longer lifetime that extended well beyond what was advertised because of the availability of spare parts.