(Montreal) Slightly less than one in five Canadians has chosen to repair an electronic device or household appliance (AEE) that has suffered a breakage, reveals a first pan-Canadian study on access to repair, conducted by Équiterre.
Posted at 11:29
The organization calls on governments to take financial and legislative measures to encourage repairs, but also demands that manufacturers and consumers take their responsibilities.
Équiterre presented a research report on Tuesday looking at the obstacles and levers to the repair of AEEs. This contains the results of a survey of 2,080 people in the country in 2021. It shows that the use of repairs has decreased compared to 2018. At that time, the proportion was 22.7%, according to investigation.
The new Équiterre study details that the majority of respondents who had not had their AEE repaired had simply not thought of this possibility. They either kept it at home, took it to a specialized recovery center or threw it in the trash.
The survey also identified the main barriers to repair among consumers. First comes the perception that devices are increasingly irreparable. The second factor pointed out is the financial aspect: the repair is considered to cost more than the price of a new device. Finally, many answered the difficulty of having access to parts and tools.
This last observation is also made by the forty or so repairers interviewed in Quebec and British Columbia as part of this study. They also identified as an obstacle the design of devices that undergo frequent technological changes and whose certain components are miniaturized.
Research also indicates that devices experience malfunction after 2.6 years of use on average.
Équiterre asks manufacturers to design durable and repairable products, providing access to parts and instructions to rebuild an AEE. The organization recommends prioritizing the repair of a product under warranty instead of its systematic replacement. It also proposes to offer affordable packages allowing consumers to pay a maximum of the equivalent of 30% of the price of a new device to restore an AEE.
For their part, governments should apply eco-fiscal measures such as the creation of a repair fund that would be used to offer consumers a discount when paying for repairs, suggests Équiterre.
He also advises the federal government to define the right to repair in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The law could prohibit the design and marketing of irreparable products. The provinces could, for their part, reform their consumer protection legislation to regulate access to repair.
The public can also have a role to play. Équiterre believes that the public should give preference to the purchase of used AEEs and to properly maintain their devices. He mentions that the cause of the breakage is often poor or lack of maintenance of the device, according to the repairers met during the study.
The return to a reflex to repair should also be essential among consumers, supports the organization.
Équiterre points out that the manufacture of new devices has significant environmental impacts, but that extending the life of an AEE avoids CO emissions.2.
This article was produced with the financial support of the Meta Fellowships and The Canadian Press for News.