Right to repair

– Image generated by Microsoft Designer AI.

“You should take a look at the hair dryer; the cord is damaged,” my wife tells me. I immediately think of the usual issue: the protective sheath near the strain relief is damaged. A perfect opportunity to try out that pack of Sugru-like putty I haven’t opened yet, hoping I grabbed the black one.

But the problem is more serious: the electrical wire is exposed, and half of the copper strands are broken, so it needs to be replaced immediately. There’s no point trying to explain to my wife, “Using the hair dryer in this condition is dangerous, blah blah blah…” She wouldn’t listen anyway. The best thing is to thank Saint Nikola (Tesla) that nothing bad happened.

How hard can it be to replace a cord in an electrical appliance? Just remove a few screws, cut off the damaged section of the wire, reconnect the intact part, and put everything back together. Ten minutes of work, tops.

But no. Not anymore. These days, even the casings of hair dryers aren’t held together with regular, stupid screws. They aren’t even secured with plastic clips, which, with a bit of practice, are still manageable to open. No, they’re glued shut. As if it were an iPhone.

Long story short, it was impossible to open the hair dryer without breaking it. Everything was glued, even the strain relief. Once assembled in the factory, it’s designed to be thrown away at the first sign of trouble—which is exactly what I ended up doing.

I stubbornly took it apart anyway, just to sort the pieces into recyclable and non-recyclable materials, but all the while, I was thinking about the damage these reckless industrial policies are causing our planet.

The right to repair your own electronic devices isn’t just an obsession of a few slightly fanatical nerds; it’s also a crucial way to reduce the waste of polluting materials.

Being green doesn’t just mean eliminating plastic from packaging; it also means ensuring that the products we make can be easily repaired. Anything else is nonsense.