The European Commission invites citizens and organisations to give feedback on their plans to stimulate repair and reuse. The Commission has put several ideas on paper. It now wants to know whether they match the views and wishes of the European public.
With these plans the Commission wants to encourage consumers to have broken items repaired more often and also to buy repaired items more often. It also wants to encourage producers to design products that last longer and are easy to repair. It wants to discourage unsustainable consumption. In this way, the Commission wants to contribute to constructing a circular economy.
Share your thoughts!
Do you want to give your opinion? Then start by reading the plans. After that, you can provide your feedback until 5 April 2022 through the website of the European Commission.
Read more
- Read the plans of the European Commission for more repair and reuse
- Read our news item on a European right to repair
One problem becoming increasingly common is the use – almost entirely by mainland Chinese [not Taiwanese] suppliers – of using ever more obscure fastener drives, to make it more difficult to dismantle things for repair.
The iFixit toolkit is evidence of this: dozens of different driver heads; all to get round attempts to make accessible more difficult. Frequently, a casing will be secured by several ‘normal’ screws, but one ‘security’ one, with an additional feature to make it inaccessible to normal drivers. Clearly NOT just for securing the casing, but specifically to deny access.
This practice should be made illegal, for products sold in Europe.
Everything these days is cheaply made in China. It is very noisy. It is sometimes dangerous and it doesn’t last. Brands that I grew up with and trusted are now owned by different companies and are all made in the same place – China. We pay different prices depending on the brand but they are all the same cheap rubbish. I recently bought a Smeg kettle. It has cheap plastic parts and the lid blows open when it boils. I’ve only had it for a year! It was very expensive but the quality is not reflected in the price. Fire comes out of the back of my hairdryer. My other hairdryer with a brush is far too hot. I can’t touch it. Fire also came out of the back of my handheld ‘liquidiser’ (not sure what you call it) and it’s so noisy the neighbours think I’m drilling a hole in the wall when I use it. The only electrical thing in the house I’m happy with is my Dyson vacuum cleaner which is made here in the UK. Yes, it was expensive but I’ve now had it for years and it does what says it will do. I most definitely think we should be able to repair electrical goods if necessary and the parts should be readily available. However, goods should be better made in the first place, then there would be no need to repair them. My Philips kettle which I bought in the 1990s still works perfectly now! My Smeg kettle bought in 2020 does not work properly.
The quality of the things imported into the USA should be a crime! I have been an EPA Refrigerant Reclaimer for many years and my paper work is required here in Rhode Island USA to recycle / dispose of and appliance containing a Refrigerant gas. I am appalled at the number of Asian made Air Conditioners, Dehumidifiers and Refrigerators that are only 1 or 2 years old that I get to reclaim for disposal. In most cases the units have leaked empty and are already poluting the air long before I get them. We need to pass laws that make the Importer / Manufacturer responsible to only ship units that will last at least 5 years or agree to take them back where they came from. We are strapped with plastic and many other NON recyclables that just keep coming. Not to mention the packing materials that come with such a shippment. This is a waste of money and our resources to deal with. We need to stand our ground.
All this manufactured disposable JUNK has got to be rejected as unnecessary and we need to start making GOOD STUFF HERE!!!!