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The grand halls of Berlin\u2019s German Technology Museum are nearly deserted on a Sunday afternoon. The few visitors surveying the vintage cars, computers, and household appliances speak in hushed tones. But behind a nondescript side door, the atmosphere is electric.<\/p>\n
Inside a large room, volunteer experts posted at eight workstations greet a steady stream of Berliners who\u2019ve hauled in clothing, lamps, electronics, toys, appliances, and furniture in need of repair. This monthly Repair Caf\u00e9 \u2014 one of around 1,800 similar repair clubs or caf\u00e9s that have sprung up in Germany in recent years \u2014 provides tools, materials, and expert advice to all comers.<\/p>\n
Over here, a man solders the circuit board of an e-bike battery; over there, a young woman and her helper search for a defect in an electric mixer. A middle-aged man, beaming with satisfaction, holds up his laptop with its newly repaired lid. \u201cIn the shop, they told me I\u2019d need a whole new case just to replace the broken hinge,\u201d he says, \u201cbut with a few screws and nuts, we\u2019ve got it working almost like new again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people just toss things out and buy new when something breaks,\u201d says Jan Siero, an IT consultant who serves as the Repair Caf\u00e9\u2019s coordinator, \u201cbut more and more, they want to stop the waste, save money, and protect the environment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under an E.U. directive, manufacturers of many household appliances will be required to provide faster and more affordable repairs.<\/p>\n
Such efforts will receive a boost this July, when Europe\u2019s \u201cRight to Repair\u201d Directive \u2014 which requires member states to support the development of repair initiatives or offer consumers financial incentives to repair their goods \u2014 will finally be implemented.<\/p>\n
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Passed by the European Parliament in April 2024, with a two-year period for companies to adapt their practices, the directive is part of the E.U.\u2019s wider Green Deal strategy to move member states toward a circular economy, which promotes repair, reuse, and recycling to slash both waste and greenhouse gas emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under the directive, manufacturers of many household appliances will be required to provide faster and more affordable repairs. They must offer spare parts and tools at reasonable prices to anyone who wants to repair a product, throughout its entire average lifespan. If a product needs repairs within two years of its purchase, its warranty will be extended by one year; if a defunct item cannot be repaired, consumers will get the choice of a refurbished second-hand product.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Taken together, said Stefanie Hubig, Germany\u2019s Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, the author of that country\u2019s draft national law, the new rules will encourage European consumers to opt for repairs more often. \u201cThe throwaway society,\u201d she told a German newspaper, \u201chas no future.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Repair Caf\u00e9 at the German Technology Museum in Berlin.<\/span> In the past, says Ren\u00e9 Repasi, the European Parliament\u2019s lead legislator for the directive, manufacturers erected many barriers to repair, like setting high prices for spare parts or using software to block repairs by unauthorized shops. The new rules prohibit such practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, independent repairers may use secondhand or 3D-printed parts, and producers can\u2019t refuse to service their products just because it was previously repaired by someone else. \u201cThis will make repairs more competitive and affordable,\u201d says Repasi.<\/p>\n The repair initiative gained steam after studies by the European Commission found that prematurely discarding products instead of repairing them annually generates 35 million tons of waste and 261 million tons of greenhouse gases through additional resource needs, energy consumption, and waste incineration \u2014 equivalent to roughly 8 percent of the E.U.\u2019s total greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an economic impact as well: Studies showed that the E.U.\u2019s population of 450 million annually spends about $14 billion more on new products than it would have paid for repairs to their old products.\u00a0<\/p>\n Berlin has allocated $1.25 million to reimburse citizens for using professional repair services or purchasing spare parts.<\/p>\n While \u201creduce, repair, recycle\u201d has been a popular slogan globally for decades, environmental strategies in Europe have focused less on repair than on recovering resources \u2014 like metal, glass, plastic, and paper \u2013 from waste streams. Undoubtedly, recycling can reduce the need for newly mined raw materials, but repair prolongs the lifespan of products that already exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n Taking shoes with run-down heels to a shoemaker, bringing clothes with a broken zipper to a tailor, or asking an electrician to fix a toaster may not seem like a big deal. But collectively the impact can be profound.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRepairing a smartphone with an average weight of about 140 grams saves 7.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide [versus the emissions toll of making a new one], and repairing a bicycle instead of buying a new one saves 152 kilograms carbon dioxide,\u201d said J\u00fcrgen Czernohorszky, Vienna\u2019s city councilor for climate protection, environment, and democracy, who is responsible for a local scheme to incentivize repairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n And every euro or dollar spent on repairs flows into local economies, he said, instead of sending money to faraway countries. Once repair mandates are implemented, the E.U. predicts, the boost to local businesses will be in the billions.<\/p>\n La Recyclerie, a Repair Caf\u00e9 and restaurant in a former train station in Paris.<\/span> But before that can happen, a fundamental problem must be overcome: Repairs are often more costly compared to purchasing new products. According to a study conducted for the European Commission, despite widespread popular support for environmental protection, only about one-third of consumers tend to opt for repair instead of buying something new, with high cost as the leading barrier. The price of spare parts alone can be prohibitive.<\/p>\n From ruins to reuse: How Ukrainians are repurposing war waste. Read more.<\/p>\n \u201cMarket research has shown that people tend to buy new products once the repair cost exceeds 20 percent of the original price,\u201d says Tom Hansing of Anstiftung, a nonprofit focused on sustainability.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the cost of labor. Electronics and textiles are often produced in low-wage countries in Asia, whereas electricians, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, watchmakers, and other artisans in Europe need to charge much higher fees to cover their costs.<\/p>\n To help normalize and encourage repair, local and national governments are increasingly intervening to bridge any cost gap. For 2026, the Berlin city government allocated $1.25 million to reimburse citizens up to $237 for using professional repair services or purchasing spare parts for use in Repair Caf\u00e9s. Since the program was initiated in 2024, more than 14,000 repairs have been supported.\u00a0<\/p>\n The E.U. mandates that appliances can be opened for repair using commonly available tools without causing damage.<\/p>\n The biggest repair initiative in Europe was rolled out in France, which created a national fund in 2023 into which producers of electronics, textiles, furniture, or household appliances pay a fee based on their products\u2019 quantities, weight, and environmental impacts. Those funds are then used to subsidize customers\u2019 costs at participating repair shops.\u00a0<\/p>\n Refashion, the organization that administers this fund, has already supported 1.7 million repairs with bonus payments worth over $15 million. The total budget for the period between 2023 and 2028 is more than $183 million, an amount that Refashion says has the potential to increase repairs by 35 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vienna, too, has experienced huge demand for its repair voucher, which can be downloaded from the city government\u2019s website and redeemed in 60 certified repair shops. \u201cOur scheme was such a great success that the federal government adopted it for repairing and servicing electrical devices,\u201d says Czernohorszky, the city councilor.\u00a0<\/p>\n Once the new directive is implemented, one of the biggest questions will be whether manufacturers begin redesigning their products to facilitate repairs by, for example, making them easier to disassemble.<\/p>\n A Repair Caf\u00e9 in Amsterdam.<\/span> \u201cOne very frequent problem is that we can\u2019t open the casings of appliances without destroying them,\u201c says Siero, of the Berlin Repair Caf\u00e9. The E.U. has addressed this problem with its Ecodesign Directive, which mandates that appliances can be opened for repair using commonly available tools without causing damage to the casing or other parts.<\/p>\n Several big electronics companies claim that they are already pursuing the goals of the new E.U. directive. Apple, for example, says it was the first company to launch a \u201cSelf Service Repair\u201d program and will now make it even easier for people to repair their devices by allowing used Apple parts \u2014 taken from one product and installed in another \u2014 to work just as smoothly as new parts, at least in select products.<\/p>\n Samsung says that increasing repairability is one of its major strategic goals, and computer manufacturer Dell emphasizes that it already limits the use of adhesives that might hinder repairs and increasingly uses modular components.<\/p>\n The repair community is demanding more. Campaigners from NGOs remain only partially satisfied with the new regulations. \u201cOne weakness is that there are no clear limits on repair costs,\u201d says Hansing, from Anstiftung: The E.U. directive mandates \u201creasonable\u201d price levels but doesn\u2019t set concrete limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n Demand for repair is surging in the U.K.: The number of repair groups has increased from 500 to 800 since 2023.<\/p>\n In the U.K., similar demands have been made. \u201cWe want the U.K. government to expand the right to repair from household appliances to all consumer products and prioritize repair over recycling,\u201d says Holly Davies, a campaigner for \u201cThe Restart Project,\u201d which teaches people how to repair their electronics at its Fixing Factories in London. Demand is surging, says Davies, noting that since 2023 the number of repair groups in the U.K. increased from 500 to 800.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf we want to get towards a real circular economy,\u201d says Hansing, \u201cwe need many fundamental changes \u2014 from strong support for voluntary initiatives to a whole new profession focused on repairing.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Back at the Repair Caf\u00e9, G\u00fcrsel Demirca, a trained electrician, spends an hour trying to repair his dead e-bike battery. \u201cIf only I had a diagram for the circuit board, fixing this would be so much easier,\u201d he says before eventually giving up. While routinely publishing detailed schematics is not specifically mandated in the E.U. legislation, supporting repair is defined \u2014 albeit vaguely \u2014 as a fundamental obligation. In the future, Demirca hopes to at the very least get someone at the company to respond to his telephone or email inquiries.<\/p>\n Still, the bike battery is a rare failure. \u201cIn 60 to 70 percent of cases,\u201d says Siero, \u201cwe can fix what people bring to Repair Caf\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n Deconstructing buildings: The quest for new life for old wood. Read more.<\/p>\n Later that afternoon, the caf\u00e9 celebrates another small success when a couple arrives with two broken lamps. Siero discovers that one needs only a new bulb, while the other needs a new part, which he locates in a stack of boxes at the center of the room and swiftly installs.\u00a0<\/p>\n The couple beams with joy. \u201cWe bought this Italian designer lamp just after our wedding 29 years ago,\u201d says the husband, \u201cand now it shines again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The grand halls of Berlin\u2019s German Technology Museum are nearly deserted on a Sunday afternoon. 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\n Courtesy of Kunst-Stoffe<\/span><\/p>\n
\n Thomas Stoiber \/ imageBROKER via Alamy<\/span><\/p>\n
\n Peter Dejong \/ AP Photo<\/span><\/p>\n