Televisions, like the rest of our electronic devices, are repaired too little © PitukTV / Shutterstock
It must be said again and again, the bulk of the digital carbon footprint is due to the construction of new devices. According to the Senate, manufacturing and distribution (the “upstream phase”) are responsible for 70% of the total digital carbon footprint in France. Faced with this unrelenting observation, the ecological emergency should encourage us to keep our phones, tablets, televisions and other connected watches as long as possible and to repair them rather than replace them. However, this practice is not widespread in France.
Why don’t we repair it?
As we learn from the new “Sobriety and Lifestyles Barometer” from Ademe, “more than 93% of digital devices used […] would never have been repaired“. A figure which makes the Environmental Protection Agency say that “When it comes to digital capital goods, repair remains an infrequent practice” And this “despite an acquisition cost (particularly with regard to smartphones) which tends to increase in recent years“. To put it another way, our devices cost more than before, but they are still treated as almost disposable goods.
When it comes to digital capital goods, repair remains an infrequent practice
While we can only regret that the electronic repair sector is still so underdeveloped, there are economic and structural reasons behind this figure. Still according to Ademe, the cost of repair is cited by 41% of respondents as an obstacle to repairing our smartphones. The same goes for our laptops. This is the No. 1 reason behind the lack of attractiveness of this practice, ahead of the complexity of the repair (33%) and the desire to upgrade to a more efficient model (20%). The economic argument is so often cited that a “threshold” above which repairs are no longer made has been identified by the agency: 33% of the price of a new product.
A lack of communication
Obsolescence also plays a role in this obsession with renewal. Finally, more precisely OBsolescence, since, as Arcep explained in 2021, there are three types of obsolescence: hardware, software and cultural (or “marketing”). According to the authority responsible for telecommunications, these three levers constitute “very determining explanatory factors of renewal“. Why repair your old phone when the new one promises wonders and will be less exposed to the risk of “outage”?
This blatant lack of interest in repair is also explained by a lack of knowledge of the sector, quite simply. According to a study by the Stop Planned Obsolescence association, 7 out of 10 consumers are, for example, unaware of the “repair bonus” which is supposed to reduce the cost of repairs. An even larger share (86% of consumers surveyed) considers that “the communication carried out on the subject is insufficient.» Figures which explain the poor results of this system after its first year of existence.
The use of repair in French homes © Ademe
Faced with these problems, the association proposes forcing manufacturers to communicate about the existence of the bonus, adapting reimbursement to the severity of the breakdown or even prohibiting the marketing of products whose index reparability is considered insufficient. Because if our devices deserve better than ending up in a dusty drawer, it is also important that we give everyone the means to begin their personal transition towards a more viable digital world.