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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/in-austria-the-government-pays-to-repair-your-stuff/>
"Sepp Eisenriegler loves giving second chances: To the defunct electrical
appliances awaiting repair or refurbishment, the hundreds of unemployed people
he’s trained as skilled repairers over the decades and even the two rescue dogs
that follow him devotedly around R.U.S.Z., the repair and service center he
founded in Vienna in 1998.
It wasn’t always an easy road, but he’s noticed a sea change in the past couple
of years. It started with Fridays for Future: “Attitudes started to change. We
saw more and more young people in our weekly repair café and as clients at our
repair shop.” When the pandemic hit, business increased again: “People were
uncertain about the future and decided to save money by having things repaired
instead of buying them new. At the same time, everyone had too much time and
started cleaning out their garages and attics, finding all sorts of old things
with sentimental value that they wanted to have repaired.”
And then came the Vienna repair bonus. The city of Vienna started the
Reparaturbon as a pilot in 2020 as a way to promote repair and support local
businesses. Through the scheme, which has since concluded, 50 percent of repair
costs were subsidized by the city, capped at €100. The bonus, which covered
anything repairable, from clothing and electronics to bicycles and furniture,
was a success: Over 35,000 items were repaired through the scheme, saving 850
tons of CO2 emissions. Other Austrian cities had tried repair bonuses in the
past, but the beauty of the Viennese model was in its simplicity: while
previously customers had to pay for the repair in full and then jump through
bureaucratic hoops for reimbursement, they can now simply pay half of the cost,
with the rest reimbursed directly to the repair shop. In January 2021 Austria
also reduced the tax (VAT) on repairs of bicycles, shoes and clothing.
Now a national repair bonus, which will kick off this April, will adopt the
same approach focusing on E-waste, which is the fastest growing waste stream in
the developed world. 83,000 tons of it land in Austrian landfills every year,
of which only around 17 percent is recycled. The national repair bonus will
subsidize 50 percent of repair costs for electronic and electrical equipment,
capped at €200 per repair."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
