In the process of repairing, the faulty components of a product are fixed or replaced and the product is put into working order and used for its primary purpose.
"Design for Recycling" approaches aid in making products easier to repair, as dissassembly is embedded in the design process enabling therefore access to faulty components and parts. This is often achieved through modular product design. Whilst this facilitates more efficient recycling at the end of life, it also aids in ensuring that the product can be repaired throughout its life.
Putting things back into the circular economy through recycling comes with an energy and material degradation penalty, and so extending the service life of products through repair optimises the use of resources, such as technology metals embedded in products.
Legal and regulatory
The following provide enablers for repair and maintenance actions:
- The UK ‘right to repair’ regulations introduces new ecodesign and labelling requirements for specified electrical products. The regulation requires manufacturers to provide ‘professional repairers’ with access to spare parts and technical information.
- The role of different product ownership models is critical in ensuring more repairability and durability.
- The EU Ecodesign Directive sets a framework for performance criteria which manufacturers must meet in order to produce and sell their products legally to the market. The UK has followed a similar direction post-Brexit with the Eco-design for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information Regulations 2021.