To postpone the eventual strip mining and destruction of Earth, we have to stop buying shit we don’t need. Or at least we should buy said crap second hand in an attempt to at least delay the inevitable extermination of the human race.

One company that manufacture and sell junk you desire (but, and we’ve been over this a few times already, don’t really need) is Sonos. The American consumer electronics company is well-known for their high-end speakers, both smart and dumb.

Sonos’ ridiculously expensive speakers are arguably of high quality, which makes them popular on the second hand market. If you bought a brand new Sonos speaker, you can sell it on the second hand market with minimal loss of value. That’s great for your wallet, great for the environment, and great for whoever saves a bit of money by purchasing it from you.

It’s a win for everybody. Except for Sonos. They don’t want anyone to buy their speakers used. There’s no money in that for them. Instead, Sonos want everybody to purchase their speakers brand new. So what did these evil, conscienceless fuckers do?

They introduced Recycle Mode.

Recycle Mode

In a market where environmentally friendly, sustainable products are getting more popular, Recycle Mode sounds like a great thing, doesn’t it? It suggests that Sonos has some kind of program you can join to properly recycle your broken Sonos speakers. It’s almost like Sonos gives a crap about the future of mankind.

But they don’t.

Recycle Mode is a shameless scam. It’s actually a trade-in program. Customers who participate in the program receive a 30 percent discount on a purchase of a new Sonos device. To participate, Sonos owners have to put their device into the malicious Recycle Mode. In Recycle Mode, a timer starts, and after 21 days the device is rendered non-functional. The customer is left with a brick that can’t be sold on the second hand market.

That’s great for Sonos, but a loss for everybody else.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The best way to lower the amount of waste produced is to participate in the materialistic grind as little as possible. The next best way is to reuse as much as you can by purchasing from the second-hand market. The last option is to recycle, and while it’s better than throwing stuff away, recycling requires energy.

With their moronic Recycle Mode, Sonos leaves only the recycle option. According to The Verge, Sonos states that “92 percent of the products we’ve ever sold — even those launched more than 10 years ago — are still in use today.” If this is, in fact, true, it’s a great accomplishment.

But to quote Twitter user @atomicthumbs, who first raised the issue with Sonos’ Recycle Mode: “Sonos is throwing any claimed environmental friendliness in the trash in order to sell more speakers.”

The bottom line? Don’t buy stuff from Sonos.