Electric fans, rice cookers and hair dryers are the most often repaired small appliances, Circular Taiwan Network campaigner and Nanji Fix cofounder Yahsuan Tsai (蔡亞軒) said ahead of International Repair Day on Saturday next week.
International Repair Day falls on the third Saturday of October every year and the Ministry of Environment has commissioned the Institute of Environment and Resources to promote repair culture in collaboration with at least 33 repair communities nationwide.
Institute chairman and Deputy Minister of Environment Yeh Jiunn-horng (葉俊宏) last week said that repairing is the easiest and most economical way to reduce waste and carbon emissions.
Photo: Hunag Yi-ching, Taipei Times
Taiwan has taken part in the worldwide right-to-repair movement since 2022, he said.
The ministry organized 58 repair training sessions and 817 repair service sites have been established nationwide over the past two years, Yeh said, adding that people could visit the ministry’s national repair map (https://recycle.moenv.gov.tw/utmap/) to find the service sites.
Resource Circulation Administration Deputy Director-General Hsu Chih-lun (許智倫) said that green design and extended usage have been incorporated into the Resource Circulation Promotion Act (資源循環推動法).
The goal is to boost the durability and repairability of products by standardizing their parts and components, and making repair essentials easily accessible, he said.
Tsai encouraged people to cultivate basic repair capabilities, as many small household appliances could easily be fixed without advanced techniques.
For example, about 30 percent of seemingly broken electric fans only needed lubricant oil sprays or a new fuse, which cost less than NT$50, he said, adding that store repairs for small appliances cost hundreds of New Taiwan dollars.
The awareness of “repairing instead of replacing” should be raised and more repair sites should be set up nationwide given the massive repair demand, Tsai said.
Ensuring the right to repair by making products repairable with proper guidelines and reasonable costs is also important, Tsai added.
The government should promote easy-to-repair product designs jointly with manufacturers to extend product lifetimes by making their components easier to disassemble, maintain and replace, he said.
Nanji Fix research showed that of the small appliances brought to repair communities in Taipei, Hsinchu, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Changhua County from 2016 to this year, electric fans were the most common item that needed repairs, Tsai said.
Rice cookers were the second-most frequently repaired items, followed by hair dryers, CD players or radios, electric kettles or pots, lamps, microwaves, ovens or food dehydrators, juicers or blenders and toys, he said.
The ministry is to hold an event in collaboration with repair groups at Imma in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華) on Saturday and Sunday next week, where repair services for small appliances, shoes, clothing, bicycles, toys and other objects would be offered. Hands-on activities would also be held.
The first 500 participants who bring an object for repair could take home up to 600ml of laundry detergent for free, using their own container.
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