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RCTH R-Score
  • Pages
    • R-Score 2025
      • About this report
      • 1. Report Summary
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        2. Problem Statement
      • 3. Existing Initiatives Review
      • 4. About RCTH R-Score
      • 5. Assessment Framework
      • 6. Product Coverage & Selection
      • 7. Scoring Methodology & Challenges
        • 7.1 Portable electronic devices
        • 7.2 Textiles
      • 8. Data Collection
      • 9. Scoring Results
      • 10. Conclusion & Recommendations
      • Acknowledgement
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RCTH R-Score
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2. Problem Statement
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2. Problem Statement

In today's consumer landscape, we face a critical challenge: products are increasingly designed for replacement rather than repair. The "take-make-dispose" model has created unprecedented ecological destruction and economic inefficiency. The prevalence of planned obsolescence—where products are deliberately designed with a limited lifespan—has become a standard business practice that generates excessive waste, depletes natural resources, and burdens consumers with unnecessary replacement costs.
The current product marketplace lacks transparency regarding repairability, leaving consumers unable to make informed decisions about the long-term sustainability of their purchases. This information gap has several critical implications:
Environmental Impact
Each prematurely discarded product contributes to growing landfills and electronic waste
Manufacturing replacement products increases carbon emissions and resource consumption
Valuable materials are lost from the economic cycle instead of being maintained and reused
Economic Consequences
Consumers face higher lifetime costs due to frequent product replacement
Communities lose potential repair-sector jobs and economic opportunities
Resources are inefficiently allocated to manufacturing new products rather than maintaining existing ones
Social Implications
Skills and knowledge related to repair are being lost as the repair economy dies out
Communities become more dependent on manufacturers for basic product maintenance
Intentionally shortened product lifespans limit access to essential goods
The circular economy, particularly product repair, offers a compelling alternative to this wasteful paradigm. By designing products for repairability, we can:
Extend product lifecycles
Reduce resource consumption
Create local repair-economy jobs
Empower consumers to maintain their possessions
Decrease environmental impact
Build more resilient supply chains
However, transitioning to this model requires transparent information about product repairability. A standardized repairability scoring system serves as a crucial tool for:
Enabling consumers to make informed purchasing decisions
Incentivizing manufacturers to design for repair
Creating social pressure for more sustainable product design
Supporting policy development around right-to-repair
Facilitating the growth of repair economies
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