The French repairability index: feedback from the repair community

Details

Supervisors

Swaen, Valérie

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [60] en sciences de gestion (horaire décalé)

Abstract

Each year tremendous amounts of waste from electronic and electric equipment, also referred as E-waste, are generated. The Global E-waste monitor reported the generation of 53.6 million tons of worldwide E-waste in 2019. Based on the current trend, the total weight of E-waste could reach 74 million tons by 2030. E-waste being partly composed of hazardous substances, its inadequate disposal represents a threat to people and ecosystems. In response to this alarming situation, governments take actions to encourage circular economy in order to decouple value production from waste generation. In this context, the French government came up with the French repairability index with the aim of guiding consumers towards products designed for repair and thus increasing repair tendencies. The contribution of the repair community is essential for the success of the French repairability index. This raises the question of how the index will affect the repair community and to what extent the index can be a guiding tool for repair. This study aims at clarifying these points with contributions from repairers from Repair Cafés, Fabrication Laboratories, Universities and professional organizations, collected through semi-structured interviews. The study notably reports the enthusiasm of the repair community regarding the establishment of the index. However, some adjustments may be required for the index to better reflect true repairability.