(not that we know where to repair it or how much it’d cost, we just throw it)

Edit : I can understand why taking two hours to repair something worth 20€ isn’t worth it though, e.g. a computer mouse, but even in such case we could standardize a minimum and have enterprises specialized in ensuring that spare parts are always available(, each costing a few euros).
Then instead of the longer task of repairing a circuit board, the consumer could easily swap it by h·er·im·self, or leave it to a pro who’d take less than 5mns.
(And the older circuit board would be sent for free and either repaired or stripped for parts)
(Transportation costs will be greatly reduced in the very near future with automation, but warehouses should exist less than 12h away)

  • SuDmit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    5·
    3 days ago

    Maybe, if for some reason we stop manufacturing things with complex shapes via injection molding (which is, like, super cheap on big scale) or similar processes, and come back to “constructing them from a lot of generic parts, preferably easily recycleable”. Also semiconductor components (actual microcontrollers, or displays, and in some cases whole boards if they are tiny enough, because of how many effort they require) are not really repairable, you just replace broken components.

    Edit: Also whole economy of scale go against this. Repairing stuff (now) is usually about individual products, hard to automate, and requires skill, also means complex logistics. Manufacturing tons of the same stuff cheapens over time, required less skill for each individual part or product and in general is highly automated.