After having approved the standardization of the use of USB-C in the smartphone market, the European Commission wants to have a greater impact on this industry and will now seek to improve the battery of the devices, in addition to forcing companies to have greater availability of spare parts.
According to the drafts of the proposals of the legislators in the European block, these proposals have the purpose of reducing the carbon footprint in Europe, since it pretends that through an improvement of the battery and access to spare parts of the telephones, these extend their life cycle by five years, the equivalent of taking 5 million cars off the road.
With these measures, regulators are looking for manufacturers to make products more durable and easier to repair, as this would also have a positive impact on the reduction of electronic waste and improve the recycling rate to reuse the materials necessary in the manufacture of devices.
The regulators’ proposals plan to force manufacturers to supply at least 15 different parts to professionals for five years after a device is first sold.
Parts consumers will have access to include batteries, screens, chargers, back covers and SIM card trays, among others. In addition, tablet parts are also included in the proposal.
With this proposal, the European Union seeks that phone and tablet batteries have 80% capacity after 1,000 full charge cycles and, therefore, they will also seek that companies do not reduce the quality and capacity of the battery after the Software updates.
The proposal is expected to be discussed during the rest of the year and if approved, companies will also have to introduce a label to the boxes of the devices indicating the probable duration of their battery, in addition to their protection standards against water, dust or even resistance to accidental drops.
However, the regulation will not apply to devices with folding or flexible screens, even though they are being used, nor to phones designed for high-security environments.
Although the rules are intended to improve devices that are in the middle or lower range so that their users do not spend large amounts of money on repairs and do not generate a lot of waste, for some environmental groups they still fall short.
“Although generally encouraging, the proposals still need to improve significantly. The availability of and replaceability of certain parts set unnecessary limits for repairers,” said the Environmental Coalition on Standards, an international NGO that advocates for green standards.
When the European Commission approved that manufacturers use the USB-C standard for smartphones, one of its most important arguments was environmental, stating that unused and discarded chargers add up to around 11,000 metric tons of electronic waste in Europe. year.
