We support the right to repair
New Zealand’s Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill has its First Reading on Wednesday 19th February.
In this letter, our director Gareth Hughes sets out WEAll Aotearoa’s support of right to repair legislation.
Hon. Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly
I am urging you to support the Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill.
WEAll Aotearoa is a Te Tiriti led, non-partisan ‘think and do’ tank building a movement to redesign Aotearoa’s economy around the wellbeing of our people and te taiao.
Currently, our economy is obtaining and using materials in a way that undermines our collective wellbeing, and the ability of future generations to live in a stable climate with a flourishing natural environment.
WEAll’s global ‘Zero Waste in a Wellbeing Economy’ report, created by lead Author Malin Leth, notes our consumption of materials in the form of economic goods and services accounts for around half of greenhouse gas emissions and over 90% of biodiversity loss per year. Rather than reusing and repurposing the limited material resources on this planet, our economy continues to take, make, and waste them. Less than 10% of the more than 100 billion tonnes of materials that enter the economy every year gets the chance to re-enter it.
Leth points out “One of the great ironies of our current economy is that we have generated a highly materialistic culture that does not seem able to actually value materials.”
Planned obsolescence of devices such as cell phones is not only frustrating for consumers but wasteful of natural resources. It is estimated New Zealanders throw away nearly 100,000 tonnes of e-waste every year, and Consumer NZ points out New Zealand is the only country in the OECD without e-waste regulations.
Our current unsustainable ‘make, take, waste’ economy is a product of design and can be redesigned to be more circular and regenerative. We can have an economy where all resources are valued and waste is minimized close to zero by mimicking nature.
Making repairing products easier for New Zealanders and encouraging producers to include repairability in the design in the first place is a key plank in better utilising the precious materials we have taken from the earth.
Current rules are not encouraging repair as a right for consumers or a viable business model for those businesses that want to create long-lived, repairable products.
New Zealand can look to countries such as the UK that have put in place rules and regulations to make repairing products easier, or entire regions such as Europe that have regulated repairability scoring for consumer guidance. We note research by the Right to Repair Aotearoa Coalition shows there's no evidence whatsoever that the costs go up.
WEAll Aotearoa urges the New Zealand Government to support the Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill and furthermore to work towards a circular, regenerative economy. WEAll global’s ‘Zero Waste in a Wellbeing Economy’ report recommends five main strategies, which we urge you to adopt:
REFUSE business as usual, the use of non-renewable materials, and the production of unnecessary items;
REDUCE linear production processes (e.g., take, make, waste) and move towards circular and regenerative processes;
REUSE products over and over again (e.g., by refilling, repairing, repurposing, and returning);
RECYCLE whatever is left; and
RESTORE the planet from the harm that has been caused to enable all ecosystems and communities to thrive again.
Yours sincerely
Gareth Hughes
Director WEAll Aotearoa
