I know EU has the Right to Repair initiative and that’s a step to the right direction. Still I’m left to wonder, how did we end up in a situation where it’s often cheaper to just buy a new item than fix the old?
What can individuals, communities, countries and organizations do to encourage people to repair rather than replace with a new?
I can’t speak for everything, but I can speak for e-waste. Especially printers. Those things are made cheap as hell, but constructed so you can’t just get off the shelf parts. Being able to take the machine apart, find a replacement for whatever party is broken, install, and reassemble, you might have just bought a new printer for the same cost as the part. It’s almost the same with laptops, phones/tablets, televisions, etc. Brand doesn’t matter, it’s all the same. Right to repair doesn’t mean shit if you can’t even make the repairs.