Update
Since this was published, a draft for an amendment to the consumers guarantees act has been pulled out of the biscuit tin and is currently going through parliament, it seems to address most of the issues gone over in this essay and seems like a net positive for consumers. read more about it here: https://bills.parliament.nz/v/6/aa85fbe0-e290-46f8-9344-08dc59cb8c95
Introduction
Something that struck me whilst trying to find parts for my broken iPhone was that I could not find any parts that were directly manufactured by apple and all the parts were made by third parties, I don’t really care who makes the parts so it didn’t bother me much, but I wanted to investigate further on why companies don’t allow consumers to buy the parts for their mobile devices that they paid upwards of a thousand dollars for. I focused my research on right to repair in different countries as we do not have any legislation in New Zealand currently. I think that it would be a good idea to have legislation to make companies release parts and documentation for electronic devices in New Zealand as it would reduce waste and increase the longevity of these devices and would impact the amount of waste that is produced each year.
To what extent does repairability affect the environment?
One can agree that not throwing out a device that has got a broken screen or a dead battery would reduce the amount of waste put in to landfills each year, but just how much waste is thrown out and what could be done to reduce this? According to Time Magazine “there is a surprising environmental cost to be reckoned with: a fresh mountain of obsolete gadgets. About 6 million lb of waste is sent to landfill each year” People do not keep their electronics for as long as they used to, and as soon as there is an excuse to get a more recent device to “keep up with the trends” everyone wants the most recent phone, with the largest screen and the fastest speeds, personally I don’t care if your phone loads a website 2 seconds faster than my phone, I just can’t see how people justify the price of a new phone and all the environmental impact that the new phone will cause. I own a phone that was produced 10 years ago, an iPhone 4s, it runs fast and has a long battery life along with that getting replacement parts are cheap and readily available. The impact of people using older devices instead of upgrading to the “latest and greatest” is that the environmental impact is lessened. In other industries the company would be shamed upon if they decided to not sell the parts required to fully repair the product, PC Pro, a UK based computer magazine states “If you bought a BMW, you’re not going to sign a contract that says in five years’ time you won’t be able to get any spare parts for this car and that’s it, if it breaks your finished, you’ve got to throw it away.” You wouldn’t just throw away a car after owning it for 5 years, as that would affect not only your wallet but also the environment greatly, just imagine if we just threw our cars away every 5 years just to buy the newest car because we can’t get replacement parts, that would be uneconomical and an overall stupid idea and would additionally impact the consumer’s wallet and the environment, so why do we do it with smart-phones and laptops? I personally would not be happy if when my car broke I had to buy a whole new car instead of repairing it.
does the cost of manufacturing affect repairability?
A simple answer is yes, the cost of manufacturing does affect the repeatability of the product, what this means is that making the device more repairable does make the device more expensive, but not by much. Some anti-repair measures that manufactures use actually increase the cost of the product, such as the use of non-standard screws that require a special screwdriver to remove. This impacts me as I would have to buy lots of different bits for my screwdriver to get into different electronics, which impacts my wallet. Silicon Chip, an Australian Electronics magazine says “many manufacturers use screws with special heads to prevent repair without having the correct screwdriver” manufacturers using proprietary screws to fasten their products together is not consumer friendly nor is it environmentally friendly as more different types of screws need to be produced along with screwdrivers that fit the said screws, this drives up cost4 and also increases waste as there are more parts that will be thrown out at the end of their useful life. This leads me to believe that we should be all using standard screws as it will not only make devices easier to repair but also lower cost as different screwdrivers do not need to be produced. Steve wozniak, co-founder of apple says, “When starting Apple, I could never afford a teletype for input or output. “They cost as much as two cars.” But he knew how TVs worked and had access to schematics“ so he built his own solution to turn his TV into an early computer monitor for the Apple I. since you were given the schematics (a blueprint of the electronics inside the device) for anything you purchased you were allowed to do what ever you wanted with it, in Wozniak’s case he wanted to turn his TV into a teletype so that he could make a computer. This meant when the device was at the end of its useful life, (for example if he got a colour TV) he could turn the TV into a teletype for his computers. This did not affect the cost of manufacturing as TVs used to be quite expensive but now that it does not cost as much to manufacture a TV, so why couldn’t we make them more repairable? For example if I brought an iMac Computer which has a very nice display, but when the internals of the computer get outdated, why couldn’t I re-purpose the still good display into a second monitor for my computer?!
What are some perspectives on the right to repair?
Obviously the companies that are making loads of money on making devices that are essentially E-Waste after they are at the end of their useful life, determined by the manufacturer, not you. Silicon Chip Magazine says “they (manufacturers) wish to maintain certain performance standards for their products”6 companies may want to make sure that they do not gain any bad reputation by allowing third parties to repair their products, but making such statements would make you wonder why they use proprietary screws and glue things together when the want to ensure that the product is repaired to a standard. By making the device harder to repair you care just making it more likely that a third party may do a dodgy job and thus make the manufacturer gain bad reputation I personally would not want to pay lots of money to someone who is not going to repair my device properly as then the device would be more likely to break in the future, from a consumer Perspective “individuals may want to repair their own equipment, or have an independent repairer do it for them especially if manufacturer repairs are expensive or take too long” In more remote places (ie most of New Zealand) their may only be one repair shop for a tens of kilometers, in which case getting the manufacturer to repair your equipment or device may be too costly, in which case a new device may be cheaper, which is exactly what the manufacturer wants you to do. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has issued a passionate endorsement of the right-to-repair movement, despite the company’s opposition. Steve Wozniak was a co-founder of apple and was all for right to repair despite being a part of the company that has the most opposition to right to repair. When apple first started Wozniak helped make the apple i computer and the apple ii computer both which were easy to get into and replace parts. When the Macintosh came along in 1984, Wozniak left the company as he did not like the direction the company was going in as this was their first machine to have proprietary screws and a lack of expandability. I think that him doing this was the right move as he then created his own company that sold repairable equipment If I were in his shoes I too would have left as the repairability would impact me as it would be harder to internally repair the device as if it is hard for the consumer to get into then it would be hard for the people that work at apple to get into it as well.
Obviously the companies that are making loads of money on making devices that are essentially E-Waste after they are at the end of their useful life, determined by the manufacturer, not you. Silicon Chip Magazine says “they (manufacturers) wish to maintain certain performance standards for their products”6 companies may want to make sure that they do not gain any bad reputation by allowing third parties to repair their products, but making such statements would make you wonder why they use proprietary screws and glue things together when the want to ensure that the product is repaired to a standard. By making the device harder to repair you care just making it more likely that a third party may do a dodgy job and thus make the manufacturer gain bad reputation I personally would not want to pay lots of money to someone who is not going to repair my device properly as then the device would be more likely to break in the future, from a consumer Perspective “individuals may want to repair their own equipment, or have an independent repairer do it for them especially if manufacturer repairs are expensive or take too long” In more remote places (ie most of New Zealand) their may only be one repair shop for a tens of kilometres, in which case getting the manufacturer to repair your equipment or device may be too costly, in which case a new device may be cheaper, which is exactly what the manufacturer wants you to do. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has issued a passionate endorsement of the right-to-repair movement, despite the company’s opposition. Steve Wozniak was a co-founder of apple and was all for right to repair despite being a part of the company that has the most opposition to right to repair. When apple first started Wozniak helped make the apple i computer and the apple ii computer both which were easy to get into and replace parts. When the macintosh came along in 1984, Wozniak left the company as he did not like the direction the company was going in as this was their first machine to have proprietary screws and a lack of expandability. I think that him doing this was the right move as he then created his own company that sold repairable equipment If I were in his shoes I too would have left as the repairability would impact me as it would be harder to internally repair the device as if it is hard for the consumer to get into then it would be hard for the people that work at apple to get into it as well.
Conclusion
In conclusion I think that we should have a legislation that encourages companies to make their devices more repairable as it would benefit the consumer greatly and also reduce the amount of e-waste we currently have, along with saving us, the consumer more money as we do not have to upgrade our devices as much. This impacts me as I would not have to spend money on a new device when the old one breaks, luckly I do not own a recent phone so parts are readily available and cheap The environment is benefited by making devices more repairable as hundreds of thousands of devices do not need to be thrown out as they are repairable thus reducing waste. Producing such devices does not affect the repairability that much as including screws that are not proprietary could reduce cost as custom screws would not need to be produced. The manufactures are against it as they would not make as much money selling new devices as people would be able to repair them, but the consumer would have greater control over who repair’s their devices and have the right to own the products you brought.
Bibliography
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