Sustainable and efficient production are essential for reaching our climate targets. And repair will play an important role in reaching the ultimate goal: a circular economy. From product design to legal aspects, and from business models to consumer behaviour – this white paper discusses the added value and achievability of the circular strategy of repair. By Merel Engelsman
The Circular Economy is a concept where waste and pollution generated by products is minimized through strategies that prolong product use and that promote component/material recovery and reuse. So far, Europe has mainly established a decent recycling infrastructure. Repair as a means to increase product longevity hasn’t yet received the attention it deserves; we still default to buying replacement products.
But thanks to the efforts of many NGOs, consumer organisations, and grass roots movements such as the Right to Repair, repairability has gained much traction. It is also increasingly being passed into national and European legislation.
Better than recycling
Extraction of raw materials always comes with an associated energy and ecological footprint. Recycling helps reduce this extraction by converting waste into materials that can, potentially, be reused in the production process. Repair is considered a higher value circular strategy because fixing a product retains its functionality and its value.
‘Repair recognises the importance of the raw material value that is lost and the environmental damage that is imposed when products are manufactured from extracted materials, used, and then disposed of in a single cycle’, says Conny Bakker, professor of circular and sustainable design at TU Delft.
Ten years ago, I did not dare dream of the current policy intentions’
A surge in policy intentions
Recent legal milestones include the ‘Right to Repair Proposal’ of the European Commission and the release of the Dutch National Repair Registry that enables consumers to easily find professional repairers. ‘We are currently experiencing a major surge in policy intentions for repair’, Bakker says. ‘Ten years ago, I did not dare dream of this.’
Most repair legislation mainly focusses on electronics and electrical equipment. That makes sense as the scarce materials used, combined with the energy-intensive production methods, means there is a lot to gain by increasing repair and other circular strategies. ‘These products are a real challenge to deal with from both a design perspective – they are currently difficult to repair – and from a societal perspective’, Bakker says. ‘But textiles and furniture are important product groups for repair as well, with each their own unique and complex challenges.’
Repair servcies: from shoes to beds
Recently, English shoe manufacturer, Doc Martens has started offering repair of their shoes: bootrepaircompany.co.uk/collections/dr-martens.Very hip, but not new, as shoemakers have been repairing our shoes for years.Refurbished smart phones are also on the rise: repaired, refreshed and sold again. Do-it-yourself videos by Patagonia encourage people to put on buttons themselves, for example: patagonia.com/repairs/.
Dutch bed manufacturer Auping has risen to the challenge and offers a restyle service for the Auronde, a bed-frame model that has been around for 30 years and is a design classic.The restyle service involves repairing the bed and repainting it in a new colour. See auping.com/en/stories/restyle-your-auronde.
Robust solutions require holistic thinking
Whereas traditional design for sustainability has aimed to achieve a positive environmental impact by focussing on the product itself, increasing a product’s overall repairability requires a comprehensive, interconnected design approach that considers the product, legislation, business models, and consumer education. ‘There are tensions among these elements, and even trade-offs to be weighed between repair and other circular strategies’, Bakker says. ‘We must therefore address all these aspects simultaneously. It is not just that companies must design better products. It is also up to us, consumers, to understand and appreciate the value of repair. If we do not change the consumer’s mindset, no amount of repair legislation or product repairability will have real, lasting effect.’
We simply don’t know yet whether increased repairability will lead to an actual reduction in raw material use’
Repair can come with unintended consequences
An integrated and holistic approach is also important to avoid any unintended consequences. When it comes to the consumers, it is not only a matter of undoing decades of cheap product replacements – which has resulted in the loss of the ability to repair things ourselves or even the notion that things can be repaired at all. There can also be negative perceptions around repair. ‘Our research, for example, indicates that consumers may perceive repairable products as being of lower quality. This certainly is something to consider when legally mandating repairability labels for specific products. It also underscores the interconnectedness between legal and consumer aspects of repair.’
Consumers may perceive repairable products as being of lower quality.’
Another unintended consequence of repair becoming the more feasible, cheaper option, could be that consumers may spend money saved on buying more products, thereby increasing their environmental footprint. ‘It is because of such potential rebound effects that we simply don’t know yet whether, at a systemic level, increased repairability will reduce raw material use’, Bakker says. ‘This may warrant additional consumer education.’
Now is the time to act
A decade ago, there was little knowledge on how to design for repair. But over the past years, research has yielded many valuable insights and tools – from product design to legal aspects, and from business models to consumer behaviour – all of which are discussed in this white paper. ‘Society at large will need to adopt these if we are to have products that are good for consumers and for the future of the planet.’
Inspired by the ongoing energy and raw material transitions, consumer enthusiasm for increased circularity also has never been higher. ‘The will is there, the tools are there, now is the time to act’, Bakker says. ‘If all goes well, we will have normalised repair as part of everyday life. As such, increasing repairability can act as a flywheel for other circular strategies.’
Conny Bakker was one of the first researchers in the Netherlands looking into sustainable product design. As a professor in Design for Sustainability and Circular Economy at TU Delft she explores strategies for recycling, reuse, remanufacturing and product life-extension, and the business models that enable these strategies.
This is an article from the white paper ‘Repair in the Circular Economy’, a joint publication of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability and the Faculty of Industrial Design, TU Delft. It has also been translated into English.
