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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to see a day when [where it makes sense] products are sold with a "repairability index" which might take into account several axes of repairability [mandated by some regulation]:

1. Ease. Can minor parts which break down due to environmental factors be easily swapped out (things which wear or suffer from breakdown over time)

2. The parts make sense to swap-out (sometimes new items are more efficient and are better than repairing an old inefficient item)

3. Cost. The repair may not be cost-effective.

4. Environmental impact.

(others)

Example, I've had a washing machine break down and all it was either a plastic bit that broke, another time it was one of the switches. Those two things have extended the life over 5 years. Online forums help a great deal in figuring out what might be the issue.

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Great idea. I'd also like to see a tax based on environmental cost, the way some jurisdictions have "disposal fees" for certain electronics like printers.

The first thing that comes to mind are the throw away toys and gag gifts and dollar store items, but extends to anything that is poorly made or single-use, especially things where the battery is not meant to be replaced.

The burden needs to be put on manufacturer's creating more waste into the world.

I think we pretty much do this already by charging for waste removal. If you throw things away, you pay more. And certain things cost more to throw away like lithium batteries.

So the tax is on the tail end rather than front loaded.

I think it's better to front load it. At the back end people have the option to dispose of things improperly.

Also, I don't think we include enough externalities in the price if things.

Having an index could inform people when making purchasing choices.

It's one thing to charge to move the waste to a landfill, it's another to price in the long term (difficult to quantify) environmental costs (manufacturing pollution, land & water contamination, depletion of resources, etc). I'd be curious to see how much the disposal costs reflect total costs and whether some areas are subsidized.

iFixit keeps such an index for most electronics products.

iFixit is the only place that I’m aware of, but “most” might be an exaggeration unfortunately. They have the most popular products certainly, but for less mainstream devices you are entirely out of luck.

I support the idea behind iFixit, so in the future I might prefer to buy from their store. Otherwise, I’m not sure how else to expand range of devices that you can get a repair guide and repair score for.

And I know of absolutely nothing for non-computing devices, ie. washing machines, fridges, TVs. I think such information is really important, but there is no incentive for anyone to provide it.

Ifixit has plenty of repair information for non-computing devices! They host the most complete set of repair manuals for the Mercedes W123 for example.

Here’s washing machines: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Washing_Machine

Wow, okay, not sure how I never spotted that. Taking a look, currently it seems extremely limited in practice

In software it was Gartner that popularised the TCO marking - and what you are asking here is roughly the same thing.

that we have to fight for food labelling suggests that TCO is still a long way off

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