The European Commission has adopted a series of new rules to make the repair of household appliances easier: they should allow to extend their life and reduce waste due to their replacement in the event of breakage. The new rules apply to washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, televisions and various other devices. In fact, starting from 2021, their producers will have the obligation to make spare parts available for up to ten years from the time the products are put on sale.
It is estimated that about half of the greenhouse gas emissions from a home appliance are due to its manufacturing process, and the remaining half from its use over a life cycle. Especially in the West, the life of household appliances has significantly reduced, with an increase in replacements that often occur when some component is first broken. Faced with the prospect of spending a lot on a repair and waiting weeks for a replacement to arrive, owners of broken appliances often give up and buy new ones (thanks to the relatively low prices of the new models). Old ones are often recycled, but their environmental impact remains high, given the small number of years they have been used.
With the new rules, the European Commission hopes to reduce the problem, offering European citizens more options and greater convenience if they decide to repair. Manufacturers of household appliances and electronic devices will have to supply spare parts for seven years from the time a new refrigerator is put on sale, while a 10-year limit has been set for washing machines (depending on the types of spare parts, different deadlines are envisaged, and separate for technicians and end customers).
The spare parts must be supplied within two working weeks at the latest, and their installation must be as simple as possible, without the need to force other parts of the appliances. The tools to be used for the repair must be those commonly available, without strange formats for screws, hooks and other components.
One part of the rules that has received some criticism concerns the limitations for ordinary consumers. Companies will be obliged to provide spare parts and information on how to install them to professional technicians, while there are fewer constraints on end customers. This could affect do-it-yourself repairs, a phenomenon that is growing also thanks to the availability of spare parts (original and non-original) on the main online stores, and on the websites of the manufacturers of the appliances themselves.
The new rules will also be applied to servers, that is, greatly simplifying the computers that run the Internet. Their components are subjected to considerable wear, especially the moving parts such as hard drives and cooling fans, which requires replacement after a few years of use.
The European Commission estimates that the new rules will result in an average saving of around € 150 per year per consumer, but it is not very clear how accurate and realistic the calculation is. The initiative has been positively welcomed by organizations born in recent years to encourage the repair of household appliances and electronic devices, instead of their constant replacement.
