What to do about our throwaway culture? Well, Sweden has a proposal: tax breaks to encourage people to get things repaired.
Charlie Sorrel at fastcoexist.com explains that the idea involves “halving the tax paid on repairs and increasing taxes on unrepairable items. …
” ‘If we want to solve the problems of sustainability and the environment we have to work on consumption,’ Sweden’s finance and consumption minister Per Bolund told the Local. ‘One area we are really looking at is so-called “nudging.” That means, through various methods, making it easier for people to do the right thing.’ …
“The proposed legislation would cut regular tax on repairs of bikes, clothes, and shoes from 25% to 12%. Swedes would also be able to claim half the labor cost of appliance repairs (refrigerators, washing machines and other white goods) from their income tax. Together, these tax cuts are expected to cost the country around $54 million per year. This will be more than paid for by the estimated $233 million brought in by a new ‘chemical tax,’ which would tax the resources that go into making new goods and computers.
“In 2015, France passed a law requiring manufacturers to label products with information about how long spares will be available, and also requires free repair or replacement for the first two years of the product’s life. That’s another step forward, but it’s also cheaper for manufacturers to replace a broken cellphone than to repair it.
“Apple takes a third path—it swaps out your broken phone for a new one, often free of charge, and then breaks down your old unit, reusing its internals if possible, or recycling them.”
More here. Not sure how you benefit if you do the repair yourself. But knowing those Swedes, they’ll figure out something.
Photo: Geri Lavrov/Getty Images
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I like the idea that they are using taxes to reward, and not just punish, as we seem to do with our so-called “sin taxes.”
You mean like cigarette taxes? Yes, taxing an addiction doesn’t solve the health issue. And you start to wonder if government would rather have people stay addicted than lose the tax revenue.
Yes, cigarettes and liquor and some states talk about taxes on soda and “junk” food, although I don’t know how far that’s gone.