10The Repairability of Household Appliances: A Selling Point for Utilitarian Products
Mickaël DUPRÉ1, Patrick GABRIEL2 and Gaëlle BOULBRY3
1 Governance and Insular Development, University of French Polynesia, France
2 LEGO, IAE Brest, University of Western Brittany, Brest, France
3 LP3C, University of South Brittany, Vannes, France
10.1. Introduction
A French person throws away an average of 22 kilos of electrical and electronic waste every year (compared to a global average of 6 kilos) (Deloitte Développement Durable1 2016). It is therefore conceivable that the quantity of electrical devices discarded could be reduced. For companies, a product repairability policy requires them to meet at least two conditions: when developing the product, they must consider the (relative) ease of disassembling the product and replacing its parts; and ensure that parts are available for longer (seven to fifteen years for household appliances, for example) in a quick and inexpensive manner. Users, meanwhile, wish to reduce the amount of electrical waste: 77% of European citizens would rather repair their appliances than throw them away (Eurobarometer 2014).
Barriers to developing the repairability of products thus appear to be relatively small. However, it has not been easy to develop more active behaviors towards product repair: 44 % of appliances that end up discarded could have been repaired (BIO Intelligence Service S.A.S. 2012).
This chapter is focused on the effect of a lever that can ...
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