Robert Edgell of Utica wants the latest generation of Nexus 5 cellphone, but he’s going to wait until his old phone is 2 years old.

“In one sense, new technology is like candy to me,” he said. “Because I am aware that I have this interest in new technology, I know that I have to restrain myself as well. … I don’t get a new phone every year. Even though my old phone isn’t quite as good as the new Nexus 5, my old phone is still good.”

The issue at this point in life isn’t the cost so much as the sense that it’s not responsible to “grab up” every piece of technology, said Edgell, who is an assistant professor of technology management at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Marcy.

Plenty of people do grab it up, though, and their old electronics often enter the waste stream.

“I think electronics is by far the fastest increasing component of the waste stream just because of the way technology is evolving,” said William Rabbia, executive director of the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority.

Total tonnage eventually will decrease, though, as older products leave the waste stream because newer electronics are becoming smaller and lighter, he said.

“Part of it has got to do with the new things coming out and being attractive to people,” said Peter Wilcoxen, professor of public administration and international affairs at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and an economist who works on environmental policy. “It’s also the case that electronic devices are much harder to repair than other things used to be. If your computer has ever had a serious problem, you probably went into the situation where it just costs way more to get it fixed than to replace it.”

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By Amy Neff Roth  |Posted Mar. 6, 2016 at 5:00 AM