Why I believe the Right to Repair is key for a circular economy

If your bicycle suffered a puncture, you’d use a repair kit to get it back on the road again, right?  

But imagine if you were instead forced by the bike’s manufacturer to take it to an expensive repair shop, owned by the manufacturer, which charged 2 or 3 times more, to do the same job – with a warning that if you attempted it yourself, your warranty would be rendered void. That would be ridiculous, of course – and you wouldn’t stand for it!  

And yet that is exactly what has become the norm in the technology industry - even if you are able to mend your laptop, PC or smartphone, you risk losing your warranty if you do. So you have no choice but to pay through the nose to have it fixed by a technician approved by the manufacturer for a price fixed by the manufacturer. That is plainly unfair and it is this situation that has galvanized the US Right to Repair movement.  

Right to repair is a hot topic right now in the US. It’s something that will impact most sectors, from the US automobile industry to the agriculture industry. 

While I don’t have a great understanding of the ins and outs of tractor repair, I do have almost 30 years of experience in the IT industry, so I felt that it’s time to share my perspective on the right to repair.  

The idea that people should have more choice in where their things are fixed, with fewer penalties, at lower cost is not a new one. Plus, there’s a whole host of consumer benefits that come with the right to repair, such as; greater variation in repair, configuration and upgrade options in IT systems, drastically reduced cost of repairs and upgrades, and the option to keep your old systems running longer, if you want to! (Rather than being forced to buy a newer but potentially inferior product by the OEM).  

The fact is, as a society, we generate way too much waste (59 million tons of e-waste per year to be precise). We also have companies that are intentionally making electronic goods more difficult to repair – along with planned obsolescence; which is equally painful and unfair on the consumer. This is decidedly un-American in my opinion! My view has always been that Americans work hard for fairness and freedom of choice – and this should be the minimum in what consumers should expect. 

At Techbuyer, we like to think there’s a different way to approach how we work with technology.  We aim to create a more circular economy for IT where we repair, reuse, reconfigure and refurbish electronics devices so as to extend their lifespan and reduce the amount of equipment entering our planet’s waste stream.  

In the beginning stages of the Covid pandemic, we welcomed a lot of new customers who were caught short by the ongoing global chip shortage and supply chain issues. And recently, I read an article that detailed how school districts across the US experienced a shortage of 5 million laptops in 2020.  

In fact, manufacturers have already produced enough laptops and tablets to meet this need. Unfortunately, many devices end up in the waste stream due to OEMs restricting the right to repair. Right to repair would mean devices remain in use and provide low-cost options for people, for example students and low-income families, who just need a working computer. 

So how soon will we see the right to repair enacted in the US? The bill was recently introduced to Congress and is called the Freedom to Repair Act. It is a Bipartisan bill, which means it has support from a Democrat (Congressman Mondaire-Jones) and a Republican (Congresswoman Victoria Spartz). The Freedom to Repair Act has also gained public support from the President. The next step will be for the bill to go to the Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Subcommittee, which is part of the House Judiciary Committee.  

The benefits of right to repair are clear. A recent study found that if each of us in the US used our smartphone for just one year longer on average, it would have the same environmental impact as taking 636,000 cars off of the road. Plus, repairing our devices instead of replacing them would extend device life span by 50%, which would save consumers $40 billion each year, and that’s including the cost of any additional repairs!  

In addition, should the right to repair be enacted in the US, there is potential to create up to 45,000 new jobs in the US in the next decade – if more stuff can be repaired then we’ll need more people to repair stuff! The right to repair is key to the circular economy. With the right to reuse, refurbish and repurpose electronics goods, from gaming consoles to smartphones, we could all drastically cut down on the amount of discarded tech heading to landfill. I fear that if we fail to see any progress in the right to repair, the ever-growing mountain of e-waste will become absolutely uncontrollable.  

We are watching the updates closely and rallying behind the #righttorepair to watch how it progresses here in the US!