The right to repair is an act of defiance of market captivity. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have made almost every device irreparable by third parties or too expensive to fix. Independent technicians and do-it-yourselfers aren’t the only losers in the status quo — the environment suffers, too. Will this movement turn the tide?
What Is Right to Repair?
The right-to-repair campaign is the clamor for more freedom to fix broken items. It arises from the increasing irreparability of electronic equipment and machinery. The movement’s proponents aim to counter most manufacturers’ policies of promoting product replacement through various means, including ending software support, restricting parts swaps, gatekeeping acceptable spare components and keeping technical information a secret.
Advocates lobby federal and state lawmakers to pass legislation to remove barriers tying the hands of product owners and independent technicians. The right-to-repair supporters’ objectives include:
- Granting everyone reasonable access to product manuals, schematics, and software updates.
- Expanding support options in software licenses.
- Clarifying everything that comes and doesn’t come with software subscriptions.
- Liberalizing device modifications to allow custom software installation.
- Widening the availability of specialized tools and compatible aftermarket components.
- Making device designs repair-friendly.
Naturally, OEMs oppose these demands. They argue that indulging right-to-repair champions poses cybersecurity risks. Criminals can capitalize on these freedoms to steal data and defraud the public.
Why Is Right to Repair Important?
The right-to-repair campaign is vital for economic, ethical, and environmental reasons. Economically, you shouldn’t feel compelled to spend money on new hardware or software because the alternative is impractical by design. For instance, being forced to change laptops due to a mere battery failure will leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Ethically, no company should have the power to deactivate the devices it sells through its control over software at the expense of consumers when it serves its financial interests, even if it means breaking its earlier promises. Witnessing your functional device turn into a useless brick when its manufacturer ends support for it feels wrong because rendering the hardware unusable just because the software becomes obsolete is irresponsible.
Environmentally, this movement promotes eco-friendliness on various levels. Why is the right to repair important for sustainability? These three benefits explain how the movement solves many adverse environmental ills.
1. Advancing Circularity
Repairability fuels the circular business model. Fixing a broken piece of technology maximizes its value. The longer it stays operational, the less it negatively impacts the environment.
Although giving discarded products new leases on life is more eco-friendly than throwing them away outright, it doesn’t mean refurbishing, remanufacturing and recycling are 100% green. These processes still generate waste and emit pollution, so delaying the need for them supports sustainability.
The right to repair promotes using swappable components and ending parts pairing. It creates demand for aftermarket components, which aids various businesses’ preventive maintenance efforts and drives down their expenses.
For example, commercial freight carriers can immediately source replacement parts from used equipment suppliers when their fleet management software suggests an engine inspection, an oil change or other tune-ups upon detecting operational inefficiencies or potential safety concerns. Having the option not to wait for genuine components from makers based overseas and prone to supply-chain disruptions increases fleet uptime and minimizes revenue losses due to idle resources.
2. Decreasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Enjoying more latitude in doing your repairs, going to local technicians, and ordering replacement parts is a significant victory in the fight against climate change. Vibrant circular economies reduce the need for extended commutes. If you live in a rural area, you may drive for hours and burn fossil fuel to reach the nearest authorized repair shop.
Moreover, rampant extraction of virgin resources may happen when your device or equipment manufacturer bans you from using recovered or recycled replacement components already in circulation. Mining is ecologically destructive no matter how you slice it and indirectly responsible for today’s warmer world. Metal production accounts for 40% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions and consumes 3.2 billion tons of minerals mined. Fueling demand for this practice is terrible news for the environment.
Any meaningful right-to-repair law with teeth can help curb various activities worsening climate change. It can also help ease the fears of millennials and Gen Zers who feel distressed by environmental doom. Such legislation can offer a glimmer of hope for the future.
3. Cracking Down on Greenwashing
Many of the enterprises that have made electronics, smart home devices, HVAC units, lawn equipment, power tools and the like less reparable espouse sustainability’s merits. If you find it ironic, that’s because it is. It’s hypocritical to claim they celebrate environmental responsibility when their business practices are anything but circular.
This movement aims to force these companies to behave sustainably for compliance. Hardware and software vendors will only stop monopolizing repairs when legally obliged.
Support for the Right to Repair Is Irreplaceable
Equipment repairability used to be the norm. OEMs have only been able to reverse the trend by manipulating the software underpinning modern technologies for selfish gains — and to the detriment of everyone else, including the environment. This movement manifests the public’s desire to reclaim that power.
If you believe you should be able to choose who can repair your gadgets, appliances, and machines and when to replace them, make yourself an ally to the cause by actively participating in the circular economy, demanding abusive vendors to change their ways and support repairable products.
Jack Shaw is the senior Outdoors writer for Modded, a men’s lifestyle publication. An avid outdoorsman and lover of nature, he’ll often find himself taking retreats out to explore his environment and encourages others to do the same in ways that are sustainable and beneficial to the environment.
Image by HANSUAN FABREGAS
