The European Union is putting in place a series of regulations that protect the environment and combat climate change. The right to repair wants to combat the premature disposal of electronic waste: ranging from household appliances to computers and beyond.
So that’s it the European Council and Parliament they reached a provisional agreement. The goal is not to make buying a new product more convenient, but to fix the one already present in the home. Let’s see what the details are.
What is the right to repair
The right to repair is a way to ensure that electronic devices and household appliances are not thrown away because it is too expensive to call a technician to put them back into operation. The first step in this direction is for manufacturers to include the necessary information on spare parts and available assistance centers on their online sites. It is not uncommon, in fact, that just by contacting them you discover that you have to spend amounts that are anything but convenient.
The new directive, therefore, requires repairs to be carried out by reasonable times30 days, ea low costs. To ensure that this happens not only on paper, but also in practice, small repairers will also be called into question who, like the others, will have to fill in a standardized form at community level indicating prices and timing.
What do the new European standards provide?
There waste reduction, savings for consumers and above all environmental protection are the main objectives of the European Union. Specifically, manufacturers – in addition to everything said so far – are asked to make the right to repair accessible to everyone even after the warranty has expired. The consumer will also have the possibility of having appliances and other devices replaced for the entire period in which their own are in service.
In order to facilitate this process, a will be created online platform divided by nations.
- Assistance centers;
- Sellers of refurbished goods;
- Buyers who want defective items.
Together with the repair cafés present throughout Italy, information of this kind will be made available to citizens to make the service more usable. Furthermore, each Member State will have to introduce at least one measurement to promote the repairs in question. We talk about vouchers and dedicated funds, information campaigns, repair courses or ad hoc spaces managed by the community.
Right to repair, practical examples
THE Lab Repair Café they are places of meeting and exchange with social purposes. They are managed by volunteers, artisans, computer scientists and enthusiasts who have made the right to repair a lifestyle for some time now. We not only fix household appliances such as fridges, washing machines and dishwashers, but also electronic appliances in general, bicycles and any other object that needs maintenance.
The first example in Italy was born in Rome and has a decidedly emblematic name: Fix it all. It is not only limited to repairs, but also promotes recycling and reuse. There are other similar places in Bologna too, with the project Rusko – Shelter for Community Exchange Usewhile in Milan the Lab Barona Repair Café. In this space, furniture and household objects that are no longer useful to someone, but which can instead make life easier for someone else at no cost, are also collected as donations. In the South, and precisely in Palermo, there is a group of volunteers who are moving in this direction with the Library of Things.
