Is it really worth it?

Is it really worth it?

• June 6, 2009
• Dave R
• Food for Thought
• 2 Comments

Recently my friend Chris decided to upgrade his lawnmower. His next decision was how to disposed of the old mower, so he called me. I’m always eager to upgrade my stuff, but I have a tendency to collect the old stuff, as can be seen by the pile of stuff in my backyard. He brought the mower over yesterday and that’s when I realized that he had the exact same mower as me. I’m only guessing that we purchased them around the same time, within a year or two at least. Can you guess which mower was Chris’? Remember he wants to upgrade.

If you picked the one on the right you’re wrong. As you can see my maintenance of equipment is not quite up to par with Chris’. After using his mower to cut my grass I realized 2 things:

1. His mower had a much sharper blade and was able to cut through my thick grass in the front yard much easier. My blade is obviously very dull considering I have never sharped it.

2. A mower must be more than a mower to cut my grass. 🙂 My backyard has lots of obstacles and the occassional piece of debris. I use my mower more like a mower/chipper/shredder. This is a contributing factor to obversation #1.

The real question here is what is most prudent? Purchasing a piece of equipment and paying to maintain it OR purchasing a piece of equipment and running it into the ground. Let’s just say for argument sake that the mower costs $200 in 2002 when we both purchased our mowers. Up to now both mowers have served their purpose. I have not paid a dime for maintenance on my mower and I say it might last another 3-4 years, making it 10 years old. Now Chris spends maybe $50 a year for service. Well since 2002 that’s $350. Over 10 years that is $500 in maintenace. In that time he will have spent enough to purchase 2+ new mowers. Judging by the cost of maintenance it is obviously more cost effective to run it into the ground.

However, consider the waste created by running the mower into the ground. If Chris continues with his regular maintenance he could use that mower forever. At my rate I would need a new mower atleast every 10 years. So what happens to the old mower. Well, it would probably go into some landfill and decompose over millions of years. I guess it comes down to saving money vs saving the environment.