Building a repair economy

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 fast-growing 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.