The right to repair electronic devices in the EU has been in place since March
The repairability of electronics, including smartphones, has deteriorated significantly in recent years. Surely you remember the times when we had the opportunity to simply remove the back cover of the phone, remove the battery and replace it with a new one. Today, this requires the intervention of a service technician. That is why the European Union has introduced the so-called “right of correction”.
The right to rectification applies from 1 March
In some cases, it is practically impossible to get inside the device. Electronics is thus only a consumer product that is designed for a short period of use. And as the European Union has recently been taking the path of ecology, something needs to be done about it.
Companies that sell refrigerators, dishwashers, hair dryers and similar electrical appliances must ensure that they are repairable for at least 10 years, according to the euronews portal. Smartphones are not yet listed. For example, the South Korean Samsung, which has recently extended the software support of its devices, is moving in a good direction. However, we cannot imagine using a 10-year-old smartphone.
The right to rectification came into force on Monday. It is part of the effort to make companies produce products that last longer. Their service is significantly less burdensome for the environment than the production of new products.
Daniel Affelt from the BUND-Berlin group, which operates several services, says that this is the right way to go. He also mentions that modern electronics are assembled in such a way that it is almost impossible to get inside. This requires various tools or a special device that can open these devices.
Lack of spare parts
Another current problem is the lack of spare parts. This applies in particular to devices that are not among the best-selling. However, this is still a relatively large part of sales. If the service is not able to obtain a spare part, such devices become unrepairable.
On the other hand, surveys say clearly. People still prefer to repair before buying new goods. The main reason is that the repair is cheaper. In some cases, however, this may not be the case, spare parts can also be quite expensive, and repairs simply do not pay off economically, although ecologically certainly.
Europeans prefer repairs before buying new equipment
The europarl.europa portal states that up to 77% of EU citizens prefer to repair a device before replacing it. In Slovakia, these numbers are probably very similar. 79% of respondents say that manufacturers should have a legal obligation to facilitate the repair of equipment or the replacement of their individual parts.
According to the euronews portal, the new equipment should also include repair instructions as well as a way to easily disassemble them if they become unrepairable, due to the recycling of individual parts. The average European produces up to 16 kilograms of e-waste a year. About half are broken down home appliances. In the European Union, only 40% of them are currently recycled.
The EU currently has a population of around 447.7 million. This means more than 7 billion tons of e-waste per year, of which approximately 2.8 billion tons are recycled.
Cover photo source: ifixit.com
