Six years ago the ‘Repair Café’ in Copenhagen began hosting special events where customers could bring in damaged electrical devices and have them repaired for free.
“We have to take care of the planet,” said Stig Bomholt, café chairman.
“We can”t afford to live like we used to live, so we have to make a movement about not throwing things out when they’re still working”
But it is not always easy. Some manufactures build devices in such a way that makes them very difficult to open and repair. Sometimes it’s impossible to bring them back to life.
Chloe Mikolajczak, one of the campaigners behind ‘Right to Repair’ explains: “Whether it’s the glue in that makes it very difficult to take out a part and replace it, or the use of proprietary tools or the fact that spare parts or repair information are very difficult to access.”.
The Dane is pushing for a new policy to be introduced throughout the European Union, a set of guidelines that will rate electrical devices on a scale of zero to 10 according to their reparability.
Such an index has been in place in France since the beginning of the year and has provided consumers the opportunity to assess a potential purchase based on its expected longevity before they buy.