Schools bought millions of Chromebooks during the pandemic that are now starting to break

[Simon]

Many school districts in the US turned to Chromebooks as a cost-saving strategy during the pandemic but are now facing issues with repairability and short expiration dates, the Verge reports.

Chromebook Churn, a new report by the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, reveals that Chromebooks are creating huge amounts of e-waste and costing school districts money. The report found that Chromebooks are harder to upgrade, repair, and resell than Windows laptops, due to their lack of spare parts, short expiration dates, and auto-update policies.

The report suggests that Google and its partners should improve the quality, durability, and recyclability of Chromebooks, by increasing the number of replacement parts, standardizing the components, making it easier to unenroll and install Linux, and providing longer software updates.

The report also shows that doubling the lifespan of Chromebooks could result in $1.8 billion in savings for taxpayers and cut emissions by 4.6 million tons CO2e. It also recommends that Google eliminate the Automatic Update Expiration system and that its OEM partners produce “a minimum 10% overstock” of replacement parts.