Deal With Broken Phones the 'Green' Way

The corded telephone in my home office began misbehaving around the middle of June. The experience I had calling its maker Thomson S.A. (TMS Quote) about having it repaired has been a lesson in disposability.

It showed me how hard it is to be an eco-conscious (or simply thrifty) consumer who buys less, keeps stuff longer and doesn't consume for the sake of it.

I was in the kitchen, some 30 feet from the office, when the phone began emitting static-filled staccato sounds. After a few days of lifting and dropping the receiver, turning the speaker-phone on and off, unplugging and replugging it, and letting my husband go through the same motions, I decided to call the company for help fixing what seemed to be a short in the speaker.

The phone carries a General Electric (GE Quote) logo, but it's made by a division of Thomson, a French company. ...