WE LIVE IN A DISPOSABLE CULTURE.
How many times have you thrown away a device because something small was beyond repair?
Every year we throw over fifty billion kilos of electrical appliances1. And because we buy more and more devices that we use for a few years at most. This makes E-waste the fastest growing waste stream. In 2050, 120 billion kilos will end up in the waste stream each year2. A huge waste mountain, full of useful components and valuable materials such as gold and silver.
designed for a one-way trip to the dump
Although many parts are still usable, repair or reuse is usually not possible because all parts are attached to each other. They are designed to be as small and compact as possible and disassembly is sometimes even made impossible by the manufacturer. This is despite increasing pressure from consumers and governments to make repair and reuse easier - look at the Right to Repair movement.
illegally dumped and burnt
The options that remain are simply to dump, bury or thermal recycling. The latter is a fancy word for burn. And some of it not even here; E-waste is still being shipped illegally to countries in Africa or Asia.3
source: Welcome to Sodom, Camino Film
It is forbidden to export electronic waste to developing countries, because toxic chemicals from the devices can be found there. pollution and health damage cause. But working discarded devices are allowed on the boat. And so containers full of discarded devices, which often turn out not to work upon arrival, end up on rubbish dumps in Africa after all, where nature and people suffer as a result.4
source: News Hour
Wasted money
Besides causing enormous environmental damage, it is also a waste of money. Every year, we dump, bury and evaporate for €52 billion in value - that is three times the value of all the silver processed annually2.
smart design is the solution
That is why we take a different approach to the manufacturing process. In fact, Repeat's headphones are made so that when individual parts break, they can be replaced independently.
