Right to repair is a simple idea: you should be able to fix the things you own. A cracked laptop screen, a battery that will not hold charge, a PC that only needs an SSD — these are repair jobs, not automatic trips to the tip.
At Sussex Tech Repair in Lewes we treat that as workshop practice, not a slogan. Repair first. Replace only when the numbers say so.
The scale of the problem (cited)
According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2024 (ITU / UNITAR):
- The world generated 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022 (about 7.8 kg per person).
- Only 22.3% of that mass was documented as properly collected and recycled.
- Europe had the highest regional generation rate at 17.6 kg per person.
E-waste is not abstract. It is metals, plastics, batteries, and often machines that still had years of life left.
Why manufacturing dominates laptop climate impact
Most of a laptop’s climate cost is paid before you switch it on. UK government electricals analysis (DESNZ) highlights lifecycle assessments where manufacturing can be around ~65% of a laptop’s carbon footprint. ADEME’s wider digital assessments similarly show manufacturing-heavy impact profiles — often cited in the ~75% range for equipment.
That means the greenest laptop is usually the one you already own, kept working longer.
French agency ADEME finds that choosing a refurbished laptop over new avoids about 27 kg CO₂e and 127 kg of raw materials per year of use. The European Environmental Bureau / Coolproducts work estimates that giving every notebook in the EU one extra year of life could save on the order of 1.6 Mt CO₂e per year by 2030.
Those are not Sussex-specific tonnes — they are the evidence base we use when we say repair beats scrap.
What this means in Lewes and Sussex
Lewes District Council has declared a climate emergency and set a net-zero 2030 direction for the district. Transition Lewes has long pushed local, practical climate action. Local repair fits that: fewer premature replacements, less pressure on recycling systems, clearer bills for households from Brighton to Eastbourne, Uckfield to Haywards Heath.
What we see on the bench:
- A dusty laptop “ready for the tip” that needs a clean and paste refresh.
- A slow machine that transforms with a £35 labour SSD upgrade (drive charged separately).
- A cracked screen where panel + labour still undercuts a new laptop — and avoids locking in another manufacturing footprint.
Policy is catching up — practice still matters
UK ecodesign / right-to-repair style rules have improved spare-parts access for some appliances. The EU has pushed further on phones, tablets, and repairability scoring. Campaign groups such as Right to Repair Europe and iFixit keep documenting what still blocks independent repair.
Until every device is designed to be fixed, customer choice is the lever: ask for a quote before you buy new.
What you can do this week
- Get a free diagnosis before you bin it — contact us.
- If repair is under roughly half a sensible replacement cost and the chassis is sound, repair.
- If you must replace, prefer refurbished — see our refurbished page.
- Buy repairable business laptops when you do buy new (ThinkPad, Latitude, EliteBook class).
We are independent repair based in Lewes, serving East and West Sussex. Straight quotes, 90-day warranty on the fault we fix, and no pressure to replace when a fix will do.