The French are going to put "repairability" scores on consumer goods, in the fight against planned obsolescence. Should we do so here?
from IEEE Spectrum’s Engineering a Repairable World
From the BBC:
The government must look at forcing manufacturers to put "repairability" scores on electric devices, opposition parties have said.
From next year, a scheme in France will label phones, fridges, lawnmowers and other items in this way to encourage more environment-friendly purchases.
The Liberal Democrats and Green Party want this to be tested in the UK, which has a higher level of electrical waste. Ministers promised to "make it as easy as possible" to buy re-usable goods. The government added that it was "seeking powers" to make companies more "resource-efficient".
Environmentalists have long campaigned against electrical manufacturers employing "planned obsolescence" - limiting the lifetime of their goods so that replacements can be sold sooner.
A report published in the summer by the United Nations-backed Global E-Waste Monitor found the UK generated 23.9kg of waste electrical and electronic equipment(WEEE) per person in 2019.
This was the second highest recorded amount in the world, after Norway's 26kg.
In an effort to cut its waste, from next year the French government will make manufacturers give smartphones, televisions, laptop computers, washing machines and lawnmowers a repairability rating of one to 10 - showing consumers how easily they can expect to get them mended.
Liberal Democrat environment spokeswoman Sarah Olney told the BBC her party would "welcome" a similar scheme being tested in the UK.
"This is not just about empowering people to make informed choices about what they buy, but also has the potential to create new skilled jobs as part of a green recovery from the Covid crisis," she added.
The Health and Safety Executive says more than 40% of the UK's WEEE is accounted for by large appliances such as fridges, washing machines and ovens. But households also discard "large volumes" of items such as toys, computers, kettles and watches, it adds.
Electrical goods can contain hazardous substances, including arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, which have to be disposed of carefully, whether they go to landfill or recycling.
Ms Olney said: "It's not surprising most people are forced to replace items that break when repairing them is near impossible."
The Green Party is campaigning for "repair cafes" - where people bring goods to be mended - on every high street.
Deputy leader Amelia Womack argued the UK economy had "become reliant on a throwaway culture".
"We would welcome government action to put a stop to this," she said, adding that it should be a "legal requirement for companies to lengthen the life of their products and ban the practice of planned obsolescence".
Last year, the EU adopted Right to Repair standards, which mean that from 2021 firms will have to make appliances longer-lasting and supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.
The UK government has pledged to "match and even exceed EU eco-product regulations" in the post-Brexit era.
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said: "Replacing a damaged item with a brand-new one often feels like the easy option, even when getting it fixed or buying a second-hand replacement makes more sense.
"That's why, through our landmark Environment Bill, we are seeking powers to place greater responsibility on producers to make their items more resource-efficient and easier to re-use and recycle - making it as easy as possible for people to reduce, re-use and recycle."
The wording of the bill says the relevant authority "may impose requirements to provide information in relation to a product", including "aspects of the product's design which affect its expected life".
More here. And more on the repair cafe concept from the Greens mentioned above, who at the end of last year promoted a new “Right to Repair”. From the Ecologist:
A comprehensive “Right to Repair” will require manufacturers to keep goods operational for years after purchase and encourage repair and reuse. The practice of producing goods with the deliberate intention that they will become obsolete within a few years time will be banned.
“Repair Cafes” will give local communities the skills and tools to repair, upgrade and customise their belongings. Using and borrowing equipment will give people access to expensive items such as power tools and sewing machines.
Based on figures from WRAP, this policy could save the average UK household around £800 a year, which is the value of electrical equipment thrown out and replaced.
from The Ecologist
Sian Berry, Co-Leader of the Green Party, said: “From the coffee cup you chuck in the bin, to the smartphone you upgrade year after year, disposability is at the heart of our economic model. And we all know it’s not right. It doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t make us happy. Nobody wants to add to the mountains of junk choking our natural world
“We are pleased to propose a real Right to Repair, which would make it a legal requirement for companies to lengthen the lifespan of their products, make spare parts available, and build them in ways which can be fixed by everyday tools.
“This is an essential step towards cutting waste and going net-zero by 2030, and none of the other parties are even talking about it.”
More here. It’s interesting to plug this into Demos Helsinki’s Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 report - which has a highly repair-conscious scenario in its “Local Loops” vision.
Finally, an extract from this great piece in IEEE Spectrum:
…Our society is in danger of losing its ability to repair things. Many view the technology we use in our daily lives as almost magical based on the incredible feats they can perform. But this attitude scares lots of us away from opening our devices to fix them when they break.
This ‘fixophobia’ might help convince consumers to pay premium prices for repair or trust the manufacturers pushing upgrades to fixable devices. But at the most basic level, we have lost the agency that should come with ownership. When we buy something, we should have the right to keep it running for as long as we desire.
Due in part to this mentality, many of us now see our devices as disposable. Americans discard roughly 416,000 cell phones every single day. This is one reason that electronic waste is the fastest growing part of our waste stream. Only about 25 percent of materials comprising this e-waste gets recovered in the United States—the rest likely ends up in landfills, where it leaches toxic chemicals into our environment.
The more devices we toss, the more new devices we need to make, which stresses our limited natural resources. Manufacturing a single iPhone 6requires 295 pounds of raw material. You don’t need to be an environmental engineer to see that we can’t continue this trend forever.
These practices have brought us to a crossroads: We can either continue on this path of unsustainable consumption and manufacturer reliance, or we can forge a new path towards a greener, more independent society.
I want to live in a world where we are conscious of the environmental impact of what we design, build and consume, where we make things that last, fix them when they break, and design them to be modularly upgraded, where we empower people to explore how their devices work, identify weaknesses, and develop ways to improve them, where access to information encourages dialogue so that innovations come from every corner of our society.
Who better to create this world than engineers?
More than 100 engineering professors have started by signing this letter calling for Right to Repair reforms. Join us in creating this world by signing today.