Fix it, find it, or borrow it

By Earth to Sea News · August 2026

A new right to repair arrived across Europe this week, and a whole generation was already there waiting for it.

From 31 July this year, anyone across the European Union who owns a washing machine, a fridge, a vacuum, a phone, a tablet, a television or an electric bike or scooter has a new and rather cheering right. If the thing breaks, the company that made it has to repair it at a reasonable price and within a reasonable time, even after the warranty has run out. You can ask for a written estimate that stays valid for thirty days. You can ask for something to use while yours is away. And if you choose repair over replacement, your guarantee stretches by another twelve months as a thank you. A shared online repair platform is coming so you can find someone nearby. It builds on a change from June 2025, when every phone and tablet sold in the bloc started carrying a plain A to E score for how repairable it is, taking in the battery, the screen, the tools required, the spare parts and how long the software keeps updating.

The interesting part is how many people were already living this way. Vinted members alone saved 21.6 billion euros against original retail prices in 2025, paying on average 72 per cent less than new, and 88 per cent of buyers now check the app before they buy anything new at all. Refurbished phones have quietly become 19 per cent of what the world spends on smartphones, a market worth 83 billion dollars, and the saving runs to somewhere between 30 and 50 per cent. Mending has come out of hiding too: the tag for visible mending has passed 56 million views on TikTok, with sashiko stitching and gold thread darning treated as decoration rather than damage. Keeping a garment nine months longer trims its carbon, water and waste by up to a fifth. Two honest notes. Buying secondhand only counts if it genuinely replaces something new, which Vinted puts at roughly three quarters of purchases and publishes openly. And refurbished technology is becoming normal rather than booming: global sales grew about 3 per cent in the first half of 2025. Normal is the better news anyway. Marianne Gybels, who leads sustainability at Vinted, said the numbers show “what’s possible when millions of people make that choice.”