WEBVTT

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"When I first moved to Berlin,

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I was most excited about this!"

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Cheap, sustainable and full of history.

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But the hoarding is showing up

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in my store room five years later.

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How have I ended up with

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a low-grade foot massager?

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And it's been three years since this

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mixer stopped working.

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We have so much stuff in Europe

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– and create more e-waste per capita

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than any other region on earth.

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"One problem is, when this stuff breaks,

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I have no idea what to do about it."

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"But places like Berlin want to

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get one step ahead."

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As part of its sustainability initiatives,

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Berlin is working to fix a big gap

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in the circular economy.

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"I'm convinced

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the markets will go for the repairable products."

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Berlin will give up to 200 euros per year to people

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who repair their own broken household items.

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And the EU hopes that such schemes

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will drastically reduce the waste produced here.

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"And we also need the infrastructure to do that –

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like this massive refurbishment factory

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is trying to do."

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"The big question is though:

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Do schemes like this just leave us feeling good

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or do they actually do something

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to tackle so much waste?"

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I dove into the DW archives

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for a visual history of Berlin

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and its wondrous second-hand markets.

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Post WWII-Berlin has always

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had a "make-do" approach.

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West Berlin was cut off by the Wall

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and materials in the East were scarce.

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So many things were by default

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what we now call pre-owned or pre-loved.

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This second-hand mindset has more recently reared

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its head as resistance against blatant consumerism

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that has taken over large parts of the West.

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Berlin has around 40 weekly flea markets;

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repair shops will teach you how to fix your bike;

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and some streets are strewn

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with tailors for old clothes.

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These are particularly appealing to me,

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because I come from a country

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where waste is still relatively low

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and repair culture is thriving –

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I made another video about it.

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"Nowadays it's getting more and more

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complicated to get things done."

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That's René Repasi,

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a member Germany's Social Democratic Party,

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who is working to push through policy change.

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He's talking about

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how the complexity of gadgets

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has gone up.

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Remember when you could just take the battery

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out of your old phone and replace it?

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We also now mix resources more –

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with electronics now in our shoes for example.

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And we need so much more raw material

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for our growing energy needs.

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René breaks down how the EU is pushing back.

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"Hardware:

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there are certain coffee machine producers

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where you need a special key

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to open it in order to repair

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and this key is either not available or expensive –

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not allowed anymore.

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Contractual:

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if you go with your phone to somebody else

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to repair it,

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you lose your contractual guarantee –

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not allowed anymore.

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And the last thing that we introduced

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is we request from the member states

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to introduce support measures."

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So Austria, France

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and a couple of states in Germany

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have now introduced a "repair bonus" –

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where you can get

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part of the repair paid for.

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A research group calculated savings from the scheme

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in the state of Thüringen

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from 2021 to 2023

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and found that the more than 30,000 subsidized repairs

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avoided almost 400 tons of electronic waste

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and almost 3,000 tons of CO2 equivalent.

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More than a third of users

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said they would have not repaired their product

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if not for this cashback scheme.

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So many regions, including Berlin,

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are giving it a go too.

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The state here will now subsidize

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50% of the repair cost

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for a long list of household items

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when you send your bills in.

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And this is capped at 200 euros per year.

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This is all part of a new directive

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that the EU approved this year

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that each member-state will write into law by 2026.

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It obliges companies to increase

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the minimum warranty period

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and lower the cost of spare parts.

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"We have these examples

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that a part of a dishwasher,

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for example –

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simple plastic part in a dishwasher –

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if you use 3D printing it would cost you €0.50,

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if you purchase it from the producer,

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you have to pay €200.

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Nobody can explain this, this is ridiculous.

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Therefore we included a rule,

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that prices have to be reasonable;

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that consumers can request

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the check of the prices from judges.

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Then you can think of repair cafes,

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where the municipality offers

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free repair cafés that people can get help

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in order to get the products being repaired.

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So to prompt the entire repair.

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And by that we get a whole boost

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for the repair sector."

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Let's check it out –

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Berlin lists its registered repair cafés online.

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I'm heading to one that's set up

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inside a second-hand mall

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run by the city's waste management authority.

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The authority collects waste

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and preserves special things

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that they think deserve a longer life.

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"This is actually how I drink beer –

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no actually like this!"

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And people donate things too.

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"That's so cheap!"

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"Hello!"

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"No, I can't do it!"

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The repairer didn't want to be filmed

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because in true Berlin style

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his anarchist group believes in the messaging

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over the individual.

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"I’ve brought my old mixer grinder that is broken.

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I would like to repair it."

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"So this main part down here should, in my opinion,

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definitely not to be used anymore.

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We have to get this rubber part again,

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even if we were to work a 3D printer,

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we wouldn't get the stability we need."

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"Ok, yeah."

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"I'll help you learn how to repair.

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That is my wish,

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that is my very central wish."

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"Why is that so important to you?"

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"We really need to work to get people

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to think about repair and sustainability.

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So the principle that we only have one earth

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and only limited raw materials

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and that's it.

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We may not be able to influence the big players,

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the tech industry or anything like that.

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But we can make sure that our children

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become resilient to certain advertising,

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become resilient to certain principles

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and then ensure that things run sensibly."

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I can’t apply for the repair bonus yet,

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but when I come back

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with my new part next month,

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I will.

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I wonder though,

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what happens in places

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where people lack access

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to places or schemes like this?

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Does repair always make sense?

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One study compared the price

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of buying new versus repairing

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washing machines and vacuum cleaners.

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For such expensive products

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it found that in every instance

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it was significantly cheaper

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to repair over replace

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until the very end of life,

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at which point the two switch.

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A group of European universities

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found that overall,

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while recycling has stolen the glory,

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repair is the most important pillar

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of the circular economy.

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You could save several times

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the energy required

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by repairing a household item

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rather than recycling it –

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which would include breaking down the device,

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separating its parts,

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changing their form,

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and sending each back into a stream of circulation.

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So repair infrastructure

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really needs to catch up.

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And to do that at scale,

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we need big players.

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We’ve driven across the border to Poland,

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to visit one of the biggest factories in Europe

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that buys and refurbishes old things.

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ReBuy says

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they currently receive 1,500 packages a week

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through the post:

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electronics,

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books,

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iPads,

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game consoles and watches.

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"Look at that!"

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Here they check them for quality

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and sell them back

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for a longer warranty period than the original –

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as part of their policy to make things last longer.

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Its CEO Philip Gattner says

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their customer base is growing

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as interest in a circular economy has picked up.

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"The first aspect is of course

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simply expanding the lifetime of products

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by making it easy for people

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who don't need their used product anymore,

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to give them a second life.

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Trading it in

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and then giving a second consumer the chance

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to use it for another 2-3 years.

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The really convincing argument

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about our business model

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is that price savings on the one hand

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and sustainability

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are not contradicting each other."

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Without the price being low,

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Gattner believes that the model won't work –

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which aligns with Berlin's repair bonus idea –

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which he sees as the next big market.

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"Over the past years,

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we also expanded into the area of repair.

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So we have our own repair facility

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where we do display changes,

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battery changes

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and other repairs.

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And that obviously

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 has an additional impact on saving e-waste.

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And that's an additional area

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where we see quite some potential."

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"Here we have Huaweii,

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here some batteries.."

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"And do you ever mix and match the parts

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and make your own phone just for fun?"

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"We could do it, yes,

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but we never did it.

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We have enough work to do."

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It's still picking up,

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and currently only very few phones

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get repaired in Europe every day.

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So I want to put this in perspective.

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Because while everything I've seen

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is inspiring in one direction,

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I'm still bombarded with ads like this.

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And at these prices and the convenience –

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can this more sustainable option even compete?

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The latest UN report on e-waste is bleak.

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It says e-waste is growing five times faster

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than the amount of electronics collected

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or sent for recycling.

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Which is bad news for the environment,

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and the billions of dollars' worth of valuable resources

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that could be recovered and re-used.

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So we are going to see a lot more of this –

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until economic incentives like the one Berlin,

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which have proved to work in some member states,

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really do tip over

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a large enough part of the population.

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And when industry truly catches up.

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"I’ve had to borrow a friend's blender

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until my new part comes.

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But I will follow up in the comments.

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And don’t forget to tell us your thoughts too –

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what do you think of schemes like this?

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Oh, and come back every Friday for more videos.

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Cheers!"