One of the most critical school supply needs for public school students is sustainability. According to a report (opens in new tab) by PIRG, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, the planned obsolescence of Google Chromebooks provided by public schools is costly to taxpayers and the environment.

The biggest factor in "Chromebook churn," PIRG argues, is that the average lifespan of these devices provided to students is about four years; as of March 2021, 48.1 million K-12 students have been provided Chromebooks, and the pandemic has Distance learning is becoming more common. This means that students will have access to a number of Chromebooks throughout their school career.

There are several factors that contribute to the switchover. The first and most common is that the Chromebook OS essentially has an expiration date, after which it no longer receives updates, forcing school systems to upgrade their devices to newer versions. Many public schools require completely up-to-date hardware in order to access online testing services.

Another factor is that Chromebooks are notoriously difficult to repair, with spare parts being hard to come by and often incompatible between different models. Since throwing away a broken Chromebook is less hassle than repairing it, schools are forced to purchase new devices. In addition, only about one-third of all Chromebooks can be recycled, leaving most of them as e-waste.

PIRG suggests several short-term solutions, the first being to extend the life of the Chrome OS software to 10 years from the product's release date. It is common for perfectly good Chromebooks to end up on the trash heap because Google discontinued support.

"All ChromeOS devices will receive regular updates from Google until the Automatic Update Expiration Date (AUE) is reached," states Google's update policy page (opens in new tab). For example, the Acer Chromebook C722, released in 2021, has an update expiration date of June 2028, seven and a half years after its release. Ten years would not be unreasonable, as enterprise systems tend to have even longer update periods.

A second, more complex solution would be for Google to pressure Chromebook manufacturers to increase the production of compatible spare parts for multiple models to improve repairability and extend product life. The report claims that doubling the life of Chromebooks sold in 2020 would reduce carbon pollution equivalent to 909,000 cars on the road. Planned obsolescence is often seen in cell phones. Apple has been sued repeatedly in Europe for planned obsolescence of the iPhone 6.

Public schools will not immediately shift from giving Chromebooks to their students. Still, at the rate this technology is failing, it will cost some school districts millions of dollars (open in new tab) to replace these dying devices.

The idea of 100% sustainable laptops is not far-fetched. Last year, Dell unveiled a prototype (opens in new tab) of a 13-inch modular laptop made of completely recyclable and reusable components. And Framework's highly customizable and upgradeable laptop (opens in new tab) presents another possible future with less waste.