this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Too many products are easier to throw away than fix—consumers deserve a 'right to repair' (techxplore.com)
submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Too many products are easier to throw away than fix—consumers deserve a 'right to repair'::There was a time when the family washing machine would last decades, with each breakdown fixed by the friendly local repair person. But those days are long gone.

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[–] Koppensneller@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's why it's extra important to make it mandatory for manufacturers to build repairable products. So nobody NEEDS to go out of their way to obtain a product they can get repaired.

[–] hagelslager@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago

Absolutely!

[–] whofearsthenight@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Indeed. There are a ton of categories where repairable is just not a thing. The obvious example is most electronics. If my TV, phone, etc, breaks, I should be able to go to the manufacturers website and at bare minimum find wiring diagrams and buy parts, and more reasonably actual step by step troubleshooting to repair it. Think about how many of these types of devices are in a landfill for something like a burnt capacitor or a dead backlight or just an aged out battery.

Speaking of batteries, I should absolutely be able to walk into a CVS, buy a battery and replace it in 20 minutes or less. And so should even the least techie person I know. I don't think that I necessarily want to go back to hot-swappable batteries like it's a Nokia brick from 1997, but we absolutely should be able to easily replace a battery in basically all electronics sold.