New rules to increase lifespan of white goods

COMPANIES selling white or electrical goods such as fridges and televisions in the EU must ensure they can be repaired for up to a decade under new rules that came into force yesterday.

The “right to repair” is aimed at reducing the large amounts of electrical waste on the Continent. It is part of a broader push from Brussels to make goods more energy-efficient, longerlasting and easier to recycle.

Manufacturers will have to ensure replacement parts are available for up to 10 years but some will only be provided to professional repair companies. New devices have to be sold with a repair manual and be made so that they are easy to recycle and can be dismantled with conventional tools.

Each year, Europeans produce more than 35lb of electrical waste per person. About half of that is due to broken household appliances, and the EU recycles only about 40 per cent of it.

“This is a really big step in the right direction” said Daniel Affelt of Bundberlin, an environmental group that runs several “repair cafés” where people can bring in their broken appliances. “People want to repair their appliances,” Mr Affelt said. “When you tell them that there are no spare parts for a device that’s only a couple of years old, then they are obviously really frustrated by that.” Campaigners want the “right to repair” expanded to include smartphones, laptops and other small electrical devices.

The EU ecodesign directive also revised energy efficiency labels.

The UK Government is consulting on updating its own ecodesign rules, which were originally introduced when the UK was an EU member. The new rules are expected to include measures to boost reparability.