Right to Repair

SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENTALISM / JUST TRANSITION

Tackling over-consumption and global waste by targeting manufacturers, a win/win for consumers and the planet.

One hundred thousand tonnes—the amount of e-waste New Zealand generates annually. One hundred thousand tonnes is the equivalent of twenty kilograms of e-waste created by each citizen and it is projected to reach nearly thirty kilograms by 2030. As per the International Telecommunication Union, NZ sits among the highest per capita producers of e-waste and has one of the lowest recycling rates. This staggering statistic underscores the massive problem of our throwaway culture, driven by increasingly costly repairs and outright unrepairable devices. The right to repair is a crucial step we can take toward addressing NZ's e-waste crisis. It is a step that empowers consumers to have their say in keeping their devices going longer, reducing their waste, and pushing back against those companies that make repair so challenging. 

The Right to Repair

Simply put, the right to repair is the concept that you - the owner of a piece of equipment, be it a smartphone or a tractor, should have the legal right to upgrade, modify, or repair it yourself or through a third-party repair shop, without intervention or consequence from the manufacturer. The right to repair intends to ensure that the manufacturer makes the parts and information on how to service a device available, enabling consumers to repair the product themselves.

However, this does not mean manufacturers are liable for consumer modifications or poorly done repairs. It's not about compromising safety or legal standards, either. It ensures that if a company wants to reject a warranty claim on the basis that you opened the device to repair it and may have caused the damage yourself, the onus is on the company to prove that your repair caused the issue. 

Situation in Aotearoa-New Zealand

As of publication, New Zealand desperately lacks any right to repair adequately entrenched in law. What New Zealand does have is the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, which entrenches numerous rights a consumer has when purchasing a product in New Zealand. While the Consumer Guarantees Act is better than nothing, it has a gaping loophole that allows manufacturers to opt out of offering spare parts to consumers. 

But there is hope in the growing support for the right to repair. At the end of August, Consumer NZ delivered a petition to parliament with over 21,000 signatories backing the introduction of repairability labels on household appliances and electronic devices. These labels would aid consumers in making an informed choice to purchase more repairable products. 

Another hopeful outlook for the right to repair is "The Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill," introduced in April 2024 by Green Party Co-Leader Marama Davidson on behalf of the Green Party. If passed, this bill would "empower consumers with more of a right to repair their products, minimising waste, and reducing costs," and it "would require manufacturers to produce repair parts and provide resources to allow consumers to extend the life cycle of the products they use."

E-Waste and the Environment

While they're not entirely on the same level as big oil, the resource-heavy nature of electronic production puts the tech sector on the higher end in contributing to climate change. But it's not just climate change; it's the growing amount of e-waste that contributes not only to rising emissions but causes massive local environmental issues. 

These local ecological issues stem from the toxic nature of e-waste and its often poor management. In New Zealand, as of 2017, not only is e-waste the fastest-growing poisonous waste stream, but virtually nothing has been done to combat it. Right to repair legislation is a considerable step New Zealand can take toward addressing the environmental concerns of e-waste. Entrenching the right to repair into law would encourage the creation of better-built and more repairable products. 

Products consumers would be able to repair, increasing their usable life and drastically reducing the quantity of electronics becoming e-waste as soon as they are deemed unrepairable.

Complicity of Manufacturers

Over time, electronics like smartphones, laptops, cars, and even tractors have become increasingly challenging to repair. This is a vast difference from older versions of that equipment, which owners could fix themselves with the proper knowledge or willingness to learn. 

This shift in repairability is driven partly by planned obsolescence, a strategy in which a business intentionally designs products to be less durable or more complicated to repair. This strategy encourages consumers to buy new ones instead of overpaying for costly repairs—if they even can be repaired.

Manufacturers will argue that certain design choices are necessary to improve performance or reduce size in some product segments, such as laptops and smartphones. However, these 'advancements' tend to come at the cost of the device's repairability.

Beyond the Right to Repair

The right to repair is more than just a consumer right; it's essential to building a sustainable future. As e-waste piles up, the power to reduce, reuse, and repair becomes a necessity. Entrenching the right to repair into law would empower consumers to join the broader movement to combat the casual throwaway culture threatening our environment. 

As Pete Seeger once said, "If it can't be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned, or removed from production."  

We must strive to create a world where repair is the norm, not the exception.

—

Bede Miller