Building a repair economy

The phenomenon of planned obsolescence where items are designed to break down or be replaced generates enormous amounts of waste and contributes significantly to climate change. A “repair economy” may be the answer to a sustainable way forward.

- MARTIN OLIVER

Your older smartphone runs slow. The toaster lever doesn’t stay down. The zipper on your backpack gives up the ghost. Over the past few decades, the quantity of materials used in the global economy has been accelerated by the phenomenon of planned obsolescence where items are designed to break down or be replaced.

The environmental effects include a sizeable contribution towards climate change, the depletion of non-renewable resources and landfills filling up with waste, including in more recent years fastgrowing quantities of electronic waste.

Recycling helps a lot, but has some drawbacks. Materials diverted for recycling may be stockpiled or even dumped, some energy is inevitably used to process it and some recycling could be more accurately described as downcycling because the materials are directed to lower-grade uses where no further recycling is possible. Upstream solutions are better, and one of these is for items to be repaired.

The repair option Typically neglected in environmental discussions, repair is one of the most direct ways of slowing down these negative trends and challenging planned obsolescence. Making do and mending was formerly an unfashionable backwater, when viewed through the lens of mainstream values, and tended to have associations with frugality, poverty and Second World War austerity. Fifteen years ago, repairing was on nobody’s radar, and seemed a lost cause when ranged against powerful forces with a vested interest in waste.

Since then, repair has morphed into a powerful global movement. Online repair manuals are now available at websites such as iFixit.com, regular repair gatherings are occurring and a right-to-repair activist wing has taken shape. Repair is one of the most effective forms of rebellion against the excesses of consumer society.