European Week for Waste Reduction 2026: Repair First, Refurbished Only If Needed

The EWWR page defines sufficiency as focusing on what we truly need to live well and meeting those needs with fewer resources. Efficiency, by the same page, uses technology to cut resources per product.

An example: a new phone with a more efficient chip is efficiency. Using your old one another year is sufficiency.

Bitkom (February 2025) put the average age of self-bought phones in Germany at 24 months, up from 17.5 a year earlier. A trend? Hard to say from two data points.

Section 6(1) of Germany's Circular Economy Act (KrWG) sets the ranking: prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery, disposal. Section 3(20) KrWG explicitly counts re-using products and extending their lifespan as prevention. Our five steps follow that logic loosely, not one-to-one, and aren't statute text.

1. Keep it. If it works and covers what you need, that's your answer.
2. Repair instead of throwing away. Germany's new right to repair covers, per BGBl. 2026 I No. 212 of 22 July 2026, purchase contracts from 31 July 2026. A phone bought earlier isn't covered by that statement, but repair is still possible. The consumer advice centre Verbraucherzentrale lists smartphones and tablets as covered.
3. Refurbished instead of new, only for a genuine replacement need. The catch: refurbished is still a purchase. Emissions are covered in our post on the environmental impact of refurbished phones. Per the EWWR page, if something new is truly needed, a repairable, durable option should come first. We read a device its previous owner passed on in working order as re-use under Section 3(21) KrWG; that's our interpretation, not an official classification of the refurbished trade. Our separate post covers how refurbished and used differ.
4. Pass it on. Sold or given away. Germany's cyber security agency BSI says you can reset current smartphones to factory settings to delete data; take out the SIM and memory card first.
5. Recycle, right at the end. Germany struggles here: the Umweltbundesamt (federal environment agency) puts the 2024 collection rate for waste electrical equipment at 28.7 percent, against a 65 percent target since 2019. Under Section 17 ElektroG, larger electronics retailers and many supermarkets take back small old devices (up to 25 centimetres) for free, no purchase needed. Background: old phones and their raw materials.

Side note: Black Friday (27 November 2026) falls inside the week, a handy moment for a buying pause.

On wochederabfallvermeidung.de (in German) you can register your own action or find events nearby, and ewwr.eu gives 1 September to 15 November 2026 as the registration period. Or drop by a local Repair Café.

The simplest action in the European Week for Waste Reduction 2026 needs no sign-up. Run your current phone or laptop through the steps. Check with the Verbraucherzentrale whether the repair right covers your device; repair is possible either way. Still good enough? It stays. Sufficiency in miniature. If a replacement does turn out to be due, Refurbito compares refurbished offers. That's step three, though, not step one.