A bi-weekly talk show by The Restart Project, plus a monthly documentary series produced by brilliant podcaster Dave Pickering, based on fixing triumphs, heartbreaks and wisdom shared at our community repair events – called Restart Parties – here in London. We go into real depth about good and bad design, obstacles to repair of electronics, emotional aspects of ownership, environmentally irresponsible business models, and the “end of life” of our gadgets. This podcast is for you if you'd like to fix your relationship with electronics. Let’s rethink, restart.
https://therestartproject.org/podcast/
Restart Radio: Policy tips from Brussels
This week Ugo returns from Brussels where he’s been investigating the policy conversations that are happening around products and their durability.
Eva van Velzen from the Netwerk Bewust Verbruiken (or Network for Sustainable Consumption) joins us on the show to talk about the repair cafés popping up all over Flanders. People can bring in anything to be fixed, from electronics to clothes and furniture.
The network also held a political repair café in Ghent, where five politicians were invited to learn practical repair skills.
We talk about our own Restart event held in parliament last week, where UK MPs were invited to experience hands-on some of the problems with disassembly and repair.
In our ‘post-truth society’, there’s a lot of false information flying around. We investigate the (false) UKIP allegation that EU-regulated toasters were not producing proper British toast. Ugo clarifies exactly what categories of appliances come under EU “ecodesign” regulations as part of the Circular Economy Package, and we discuss how we can move towards policy for more durable and repairable household appliances.
What tips and policies can we take away from Brussels to help fix Britain’s throwaway economy?
Links to things we discussed:
- Green Alliance new report
- EU commission regulations
- ‘Toastergate’
- Our Parliamentary event
[Feature image “Burnt Toast” by Flickr user Treacy is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
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