Right to repair
A green movement is underway but what can you do?
Think about your technology and then consider how miserable life becomes when it breaks. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could repair it yourself and extract a few more years out of your investment?
We discard more than two million tons of electrical waste each year in the UK and the horrifying reality is that most of it isn’t very old. With access to the right tools and spare parts, much of it could be fixed and reused. The UK has some of the worst electrical recycling rates in the world, despite the irrefutable humanitarian and environmental cost of the gadgets we buy.
Our ability to fix products has been slowly eradicated by manufacturers that view repairs as lost sales. And it’s not only you and your screwdrivers who have been made redundant – even professional repairers such as myself are increasingly unable to do anything with components that are glued or soldered together. I’ve been running a PC repair shop for 18 years and I know the tricks and excuses manufacturers use to force people into buying new products, so I’ll also reveal some of the techniques used by manufacturers to actively prevent repair.
But all is not lost. A right to repair movement is gaining momentum and driving legislative change across the globe. To understand why proposals are being put forward that could radically alter how the UK repairs and recycles, I’ve spoken to policy makers, manufacturers, political parties, consumer champions, waste processors, environmentalists and YouTube repair royalty.
We all love our tech, but it’s literally costing us the earth. The only way we can put it right is to effect change that gives us back our right to repair.
Write-offs
The old adage of “they don’t make them like they used to” is a perfect summation of the technology available today. We love powerful, compact gadgets and are eager for the next innovation, despite the mountains of electronic waste rising around us. Our gadgets are wonderful until they break or slow down, at which point we grumble about their lack of repairability, before ordering another irreparable box of glue and silicon. This is the “linear economy” in action – we extract resources to make and use products before getting rid of them and, indefensibly, polluting the environment.
What we’ve lost is our right to repair (R2R). There was a time when it was possible to fix and upgrade our products, but what we purchase now is largely irreparable and often comes with an expected lifespan that’s only marginally longer than the warranty period. R2R advocates believe the products we own should be repairable, not only because it’s great for our wallets but because maximising the lifespan of our technology is critical for the planet. In 2019, the European Environmental Bureau reported that using all the washing machines, smartphones, laptops, and vacuum cleaners in Europe for only a year longer would save four million
WE ALL LOVE OUR TECHNOLOGY, BUT IT’S LITERALLY COSTING US THE EARTH
tons of CO2 per year, the equivalent of taking more than two million cars off the road for the same amount of time.
Nothing lasts forever but when a business outgrows its basic laptop, R2R could see it passed to someone else who will get great use out of it. Eventually, when repairs are no longer possible, it must be properly recycled so vital materials can be extracted and reused in new products. This cycle is the “circular economy” – a system of make, use, reuse, remake and recycle – and there are political moves to make it a reality in the UK.
On 26 November 2020, the European Parliament approved a report that has weaponised the European Commission so it can now introduce game-changing environmental laws affecting both manufacturing and consumption. Early proposals include extending the lifespan of smartphones and laptops and initiating a repairability rating for new products. If this sounds fanciful, France has news for you.
Since January this year, French shops have labelled laptops, phones and TVs with a repairability score out of ten based on price, availability of repair documentation, spare parts and ease of disassembly. This is already sending ripples back up the supply chains to manufacturers.
“The UK could adopt the same system,” said Ugo Vallauri, policy lead and co-founder of The Restart Project, a social enterprise that aims to “fix our relationship with electronics”.
“It would be a be a great step forward for everyone.”
Vallauri believes that France’s progressive move will influence the UK, even though the latter is now outside of the auspices of the EU. “Manufacturers are unlikely to produce products specifically for France. We hope that the UK will follow the eco-design regulations adopted by the EU.”
There are tentative indications that this is one EU initiative we won’t turn our noses up at. A House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee
report on Electronic Waste and the Circular Economy ( EWCE) has formed a plan on how the UK can reduce waste, extend product lifespans and bring back R2R. In short, move the UK to a circular economy.
The EWCE report also lays out the UK’s current approach to recycling and d – spoiler alert – it’s terrible. PC Pro spoke to Amelia Womack, deputy leader of the Green Party, and asked her to give the UK a rating out of ten. She said she would “probably give it a three”.
“When it comes to things like electronics, people just don’t know how to dispose of them,” Womack aid. “Recycling is the last thing we hould be doing. [We should be] eusing, making sure that we’re reating that circular economy, and epairing, making sure we’re getting longer life from our products.”
Disposable tech
The he EWCE report states that, in 2016, the he average UK smartphone user
RECYCLINGIS
THE LAST THING WE SHOULD BE DOING.WE SHOULD BE REUSING
dumped their handsets after less than 22 months, which is shorter than the expected lifespan. Even if we resist the manufacturer’s upgrade tractor beam, getting our technology repaired is harder than ever when it inevitably encounters a problem.
Take Apple’s great-sounding AirPods: they’re impossible to disassemble, which makes them irreparable. PC Pro asked Apple about the construction of the AirPods and was told that: “Apple’s products are designed with the environment in mind. Everything from the materials we select to the way we approach recycling is meant to leave the world better than we found it.”
Hugh Jeffreys is a YouTube star whose informative repair videos have accrued over 98 million views, including his attempt to fix the AirPods. “I wanted show how irreparable they were, so what I tried to do was open them up, to see how hard it would be to change the battery. I had to completely destroy the entire thing,” Jeffreys said.
As an experienced repairer,
Jeffreys is clear that the barriers to repair are “the lack of documentation or lack of parts a manufacturer would supply you with”. Most of the time, neither of these are obtainable. Some laptop manufacturers have recently made a few service manuals available, but they still won’t provide spares to the public.
Even if you somehow get a genuine component, the device manufacturers have a new trick to stop you using it. In October 2020, Jeffreys bought two identical iPhone 12 handsets and filmed what happens when you swap the parts between them. “The cameras are really unstable when they’re replaced, even two brand-new phones with genuine parts,” he said, adding that “as soon as you start swapping things, issues were arising”.
Once Jeffreys switched the parts back to their original phones, though, full functionality returned. This phenomenon is called “serialisation” and it ensures that the parts in certain iPhones are software-encoded so they can’t be used in another device. In terms of R2R, a manufacturer has put up a barrier that prevents the use of even genuine parts.
Apple explained its decision by directing me to its website about the “importance of service by trained technicians using genuine Apple displays” ( pcpro.link/319genuine).
As Jeffreys used parts from another iPhone, perhaps Apple’s issue is the definition of genuine.
There are other companies who say it doesn’t have to be this way. The 3+ is Fairphone’s latest handset. It’s a small company of around 80 people who have a unique approach to manufacturing. Not only does Fairphone sell spare parts, but the modular design allows for some refreshing upgrades. It’s possible to bring a Fairphone 3 up to the spec of a 3+ by swapping out the camera modules using a single screwdriver and the instructional videos provided. I asked Fairphone’s co-founder, Miquel Ballester, why others don’t follow its lead. “Big organisations are difficult to change and to move in another direction, but I mean to give an idea of what can be done. Then we can inspire changing the industry.” And while selling millions of phones isn’t Fairphone’s goal, Ballester adds: “We are a for-profit social enterprise, let that be clear”.
Fairphone’s focus is the humanitarian cost of the materials used to manufacture technology, because they originate from some of the world’s most deprived areas. One example is cobalt, found inside rechargeable batteries and around 60% of it is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) using children in le thal working conditions. “We launched this year the
Fair Cobalt Alliance, to work big health and safety projects in DRC with two specific mines with companies like Signify and Tesla,” he said.
Fairphone has a track record of improving the lives of, and getting fairer deals for, the workers who provide the
blood, sweat and tears that make our technology. They’re a beacon to others in the industry. “We are increasingly doing more of those projects where we can really put it out there to the industry and say ‘Hey, you can join this’,” said Ballester.
From an R2R perspective, Fairphone’s modular design extends the life expectancy of its products, but its commitment to the wellbeing of those dragging minerals out of the earth is not only meritorious but vital to a sustainable, circular economy.
The recycling myth
If I’ve yet to convince you about R2R’s importance, let’s introduce the concept of “recycling”. The aim of recycling is to reclaim gold, silver, copper, platinum and other rare materials from our waste so they can be reused. The World Economic Forum states that reusing precious and rare resources generates around 80% fewer emissions than mining fresh materials from the earth.
However, the parliamentary EWCE report reveals that the UK doesn’t have much infrastructure capable of material recovery.
I asked Cris Stephenson, CEO of Environcom: how many facilities in the UK can retrieve the materials in the average smartphone? Researchers estimate that we send over 40% of our waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) overseas. “A lot end up on sites like Agbogbloshie in Ghana where it’s broken up and burnt, causing huge environmental impact to the local area and people,” said Stephenson. “Remember, every time we export used electrical and electronic equipment to countries outside the WEEE Directive area, effectively those products will end up being landfilled or worse.”
England’s recycling infrastructure is regulated by the Environment Agency and Stephenson is clear on why so much WEEE ends up abroad. “They are woefully underfunded, plus the whole setup does not encourage enforcement. In Spain, for instance, visits are multi-agency, so the police, environmental officers, firemen and HSE [Health and Safety Executive] officers all visit at the same time.”
We lose vital materials mined from the dangerous places of the world because we have infrastructure designed to shred and incinerate to generate energy from waste. Think about that the next time you drop a TV off at the tip.
UK consumers also seem to be confused about what to do with their WEEE. In 2017, around 155,000 tons of equipment was collected from domestic bins, which doesn’t surprise Stephenson. “Currently, most of it ends up in the black bins where it goes to either landfill or ‘energy from waste’ plants and is incinerated.”
Stephenson is an advocate of kerbside collections – as is the Green Party’s Womack. “I used to travel the entire country and talk to different people and what I came to realise is that all people want is the environmental option to be the cheapest and the easiest option. I think that kerbside recycling is one step to making recycling the easiest option.”
Certain manufacturers, such as Apple, do offer customers help. The company explained to me that “customers can drop off AirPods at any Apple Store and we will recycle them, or they can post them to us for free by applying online”.
I have sympathy for the recycling industry. The processing and fabrication shoehorned into modern electronics makes extraction complicated. It’s like picking a halfeaten soufflé out of the bin and attempting to extract its eggs, milk and sugar for reuse in a fresh batch of scones – only much more difficult. Manufacturers don’t supply
R2R MUSTBECOME A PRIORITY BECAUSE IT’S VITAL TO MAXIMISE THE LIFE OF PRODUCTS
composition information, meaning recyclers such as Environcom are blind as to which materials th they should even attempt to extrac extract from the scrapped electronics.
R2R must become a priority because it’s vital to maximise the life of the products we purchase. We also need to change our behaviour – buy less and repair more. A UN report published in July 2020 showed that the UK generated the second highest amount of e-waste per person in the world. Manufacturers must utilise their brilliance to make technology repairable with easy access to spares and documentation.
The positive news is that some brilliant and driven innovators, politicians, manufacturers and repairers have come together to effect change. France is showing the way with its repairability scores, but others must follow. follow
The brakes are being applied to the technology juggernaut and, hopefully, we might finally get it under control.