5. The Slingbox
It provides the very unuseful function of allowing you, if you have broadband,
to watch your own TV from anywhere in the world that you have access to the
internet. So now you can spend a fortune going to South Africa or wherever
on holiday and spend your time there making sure that you don't miss an
episode of Emmerdale. http://www.slingmedia.com/
6. Hammacher Schlemmer infant-care timer
A fine example of the guilt-inducing stuff that is sold for new mothers. It’s
basically a plastic digital clock with lots of buttons and “an LCD that
displays the elapsed time since your infant's last feeding, diaper change,
nap, etc...” So you can tell when baby’s hungry or damp. Doesn’t Mother
Nature do that anyway? http://www.hammacher.com/
7. Braun Tassimo coffee maker
The machine got nominated for the wasteful "T" discs or pods (made
of plastic and foil) of which at least one and sometimes two must be used
for every cup of coffee. There appears to be no way to reuse these nor any
way to recycle them, given their mixture of materials, so after contributing
just one cup of coffee to the world, these things end up in the landfill. http://www.amazon.co.uk/
8. The pocket sundial
Various models available, all equally impractical. See them at: http://www.marine-super-store.com/
9. PYRAMAT Wireless Sound Rocker Gaming Chair
PC World markets a special "gaming" chair aimed at children of all
ages, an S-shaped rocking chair with built-in headphones, in which kids and
kidults can sit to play their computer games. “What are we coming to?” said
its nominator. “Children should be outside playing not sitting on their
arses playing games all day.” http://www.pcworld.co.uk/
10. The E.ON PowerDown
You plug your computer and peripherals into it, and when you turn your PC off,
it turns the peripherals off too. Cute idea, but as its nominator says, “My
scanner uses 2 watts on standby, and the printer uses 3. So that's saving a
maximum of 5 watts for 14 hours a day – or 70 watts per day. However, if you
cut the printer’s power, it does a complete cleaning cycle, wasting ink when
it starts. But more to the point, you will never recoup more energy than is
used making all that plastic and metal, then shipping it over from China.” http://www.complocated.com/
For all the rest of this year’s Landfill nominations, and an in-depth
explanation of the awards, visit The
Landfill Prize . Meanwhile, I’ll get busy making a model of the Philips
brush atop a pile of grubby landfill, as a special trophy that I’ll attempt
to award to the makers in person. I’m not completely sure, though, that they
will be keen to receive it. We’ll see.
© John Naish 2008. Enough: Breaking Free From the World of More
(Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99), is published this week. It is
available from Times BooksFirst for £15.29, p&p free: 0870 1608080
or visit timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst
