Zippo

A disposable lighter dies the moment its plastic tank runs dry. Nothing inside it can be refilled or repaired, so it goes in the bin and you reach for the next one.

The Zippo is a brass case around a steel insert, hinged and windproofed, made in Bradford, Pennsylvania since 1932. You feed it lighter fluid and swap a ten-cent flint now and then. It keeps striking. Wick and flint are sold as loose parts for a euro or two, so nothing about it is ever truly worn out. The case wears into a soft brass patina that marks it as yours. Every original Zippo carries a factory promise the company has kept for more than ninety years: it works, or they repair it free. Send in a dead Zippo, from this year or from 1955. It comes back working at no charge. The lighter you carry now is the one your grandchild flicks open later.

A BIC disposable costs ninety cents and lights until the fuel is gone. Run through the tank in a couple of months and a regular user buys four or five a year. Every one is unrefillable plastic that ends in landfill. The Zippo costs 23,96 euro once at bol.com. A can of fuel runs about six euro and lasts most of a year. Flints cost cents. Across twenty years the disposable route totals forty-odd lighters and forty-odd pieces of dead plastic. The Zippo is the same single object the whole time. A working vintage Zippo sells to collectors for more than it cost new.

Verdict: buy the one lighter a repair desk still fixes for free ninety years on.