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Sign upIncentivise repairs to avoid waste and strengthen a circular economy
Incentivise repairs to avoid waste and strengthen a circular economy
A repair voucher is a financial incentive measure that can be introduced by cities, federal states, or countries to encourage citizens to have defective or damaged items repaired rather than discarded and replaced with new ones. This allows for saving considerable waste and strengthens the circular economy. Typically, a repair voucher scheme includes financial support or discounts for repair services. The introduction of repair vouchers has the potential to strengthen awareness of sustainable consumption and promote the longer use of products (5) as can be seen with the Vienna Repair Voucher. By using the Vienna Repair Voucher, more than 40,000 items have been repaired during a period of 1 year since the start of the funding program, thereby avoiding around 2,800 tons of CO2. For comparison: one hectare of forest stores around 13 tonnes of CO2 per year. The Vienna repair voucher has therefore taken on the work of around 215 hectares of forest (6). Such an initiative can also result in significant economic savings for governments in terms of waste management. In 2020, the global direct cost of waste management was estimated at EUR 228 billion. Without urgent improvements in waste management, the global annual cost could double to an astounding EUR 580.4 billion by 2050 (8). A repair voucher could encourage individuals to repair items instead of discarding them, which in turn reduces the amount of waste to be managed.
Every year, we dispose of a staggering 2.1 billion tons of waste. If all this waste were loaded onto standard trucks, we would require enough trucks to circumnavigate the globe 24 times when lined up end to end. This stunning amount of waste is partly because a large part of what we buy is trashed within 6 months. Electronic waste alone accounts for roughly 50 million tons (1). In Europe 77% of citizens would be willing to have their goods repaired but hardly ever do because it is too expensive for them to do so (2). Repair services are very labour-intensive, so it is often the case that a large part of the repair costs is attributable to labor costs. For this reason, the likelihood increases that consumers will view the repair of a defective device as uneconomical and therefore prefer to replace a defective device with a new one (3). A way to decrease the expense would be the use of Government voucher.
The information presented above, is solely for the purposes of information. The Solar Impulse Foundation does not assert to possess the definitive answer but aims to present intriguing facts deemed important for consideration in our daily choices and discussions related to climate action. It does not intend to function as a moralizing entity but rather seeks to showcase societal norms that may not always be logical, while also offering better, more environmentally friendly alternatives, catered to improving the overall well-being of individuals andsociety in general.
