The DIY dilemma

“For OEMs and their agents, this trend poses many challenges, from product design onwards,” she said. “One of these is that many will have to establish a comprehensive and complex spare parts operation, in some cases for the first time. Instead of occasionally supplying small numbers of parts, from current products, to official dealers to meet warranty claims, OEMs will need to supply even obsolescent items, not just to dealers, but to third party repairers, the growing number of ‘community’ repair/reuse organisations and, where safety considerations allow, to individual consumers.

“And whereas most consumer goods are shipped to the point of sale in their own boxes, perhaps with some foam protectors for the corners, spare parts will require a completely different approach to fulfilment and packaging. Unpredictable combinations of often small, possibly fragile, parts will have to be securely boxed for shipment. Suddenly, OEMs need far more sophisticated packing lines.”

This will also have an effect on staffing costs, she added, because traditional, labour-intensive packing operations tend to be significantly more expensive. “Businesses that already supply an aftermarket often make reasonable margins on spares, where items can regularly be pulled from production and packaged in occasional periods of relative inactivity. A fullblown, high volume spares operation, likely picking and packing from its own store and inventory, is a different story entirely and may well be a significant commitment in both working capital and labour.

“Apart from labour costs, think of all the multitude different box sizes that will need to be kept in stock and the consequences of not having the right sized box available to packers.” And the challenges are not just logistical ones. Even though consumer feedback has warmed to initiatives that improve the repairability of products, clearer repair instructions and mandatory software update periods, campaigners insist there’s still work to do on ensuring non-discriminatory access to the repair market that gives customer choice on how and where.

And there is opposition to the one-sizefits-all approach. A good example was a campaign by the trade organisation, People for Bikes who argued in several US states that e-bikes be exempted on the grounds of safety, No-one without the proper training should attempt to repair e-bikes, they say, especially not the batteries. But one of the biggest concerns lies in the need to make products last for ten years which will inevitably mean changes in the way components are machined and fitted, and may also affect the materials used. Ryan Kingh, a marketing specialist at Plymouth based electrical parts manufacturer Rowse, summed it up at the time of the original announcements when he said: “OEMs will also be obliged to focus on materials that can withstand 10 years of use without their form and function deteriorating... metal structures will have a greater chance of withstanding this doubled life expectancy, but plastics and electronics may well suffer from plasticiser evaporation, oxidation, and other harmful processes.

“Connectors and relays, for example, can oxidise, which will cause them to supply greater electrical resistance. The electrolytic fluid used in capacitors is prone to dissolve and evaporate over time, limiting their shelf life.”

One of the most vital pieces of equipment in the wider world, let alone that of business, has also had help to further establish its sustainability credentials thanks to Circular Computing’s groundbreaking partnership with UK Standards body BSI to help bring recycled PCs to the mainstream.

Using a what they describe as a Circular Remanufacturing Process, the company delivers HP, Dell, and Lenovo laptops that appear as new, ensuring carbon-neutral processes and endproducts. The company’s BSI Kitemark is a world first for a company dealing in remanufactured laptops, but one that certifies that it produces products “equal to or better than new” as required by the standards company with over 77,500 clients across 195 countries.

Circular Computing has enabled customers such as WWF and the Royal Mint to save up to £ 15 million while realising significant environmental benefits. These include 73,000,000 kg of resource preservation, saving 11,500,000,000 litres of water and reducing 19,280,000 kilograms of carbon. As a further contribution to carbon sequestration, the company says five trees are planted through their WeForest scheme for every laptop they manage to sell.

The remanufacturing process, one that involves an intensive 360-point quality check by highly qualified technicians, prolongs the life-cycle of hardware, decreasing the amount of technology wasted annually. Steve Haskew, the company’s Head of Sustainability and Social Leadership said: “We’re passionate about placing remanufacturing at the centre of the IT industry for years to come. The mountain of e-waste created is the result of people not respecting that technology at the end of its first lifecycle isn’t waste but instead a next-generation resource.”

The right-to-repair laws did far more than require batteries to be easily removable and replaceable, leading to a strong movement to accelerate the pace of refurbished electronics throughout Europe. France’s Back Market is arguably the most established, a dedicated renewed tech marketplace founded in 2014 and blazing a trail among the Unicorns of Paris. The Circular Computing company is active in 16 countries, has raised € 884 million and is valued at $ 5.7 billion. In Austria, Refurbed has developed a resale platform to return even more usable tech to market. Since launching in 2017, it reports that it has managed to save 170 tonnes of electronic devices, resulting in a cumulative reduction in CO2 impacts by 31,000 tonnes. The company plants a tree in Haiti, Madagascar, Kenya, Indonesia, Mozambique, or Nepal for every device sold.

Cate Lawrence from the IT platform, Tech.eu said: “Hopefully in the future, we’ll see electronics designed with modular, replaceable parts built from materials that can be repurposed or recycled. In the case of IoT-connected devices, I want to see hardware that works in some capacity even if the software and apps are defunct. This makes reuse possible even if all digital features are not.”