TechRadar said that the European Union wants to extend the life of smartphones and tablets within its limits, so that they will last for at least five years. For the past five years, the European Union has been consistently working on laws relating to the right to repair, which aim to make the task of repairing old appliances easy for ordinary people. This is aimed at facilitating the repair and upgrading of devices as well in order to reduce e-waste.
Instead of throwing a phone or tablet in the trash and paying for a new device, the consumer should be able to replace and keep the damaged parts of the old device.
These rules will revitalize the so-called circular economy by 2050. In the circular economy, instead of harvesting resources to make products that eventually turn into discarded waste, the waste is instead reused and turned into resources for the next generation of products.
The European Union has issued a draft proposal to force manufacturers to provide essential components to professional repairers for up to five years after the launch of a new phone or tablet in the European Union. This includes cameras, battery packs, charging ports, replacement headphones, and other important parts. If the proposal is turned into law, it will prevent manufacturers from stopping updates that negatively affect the device’s battery life during the same time period.
This is supposed to be good news for the consumer because it will ensure that the device stays useful for a longer period, and thus can save money.