White Goods and Chips Shortages?

Looking at this news article from the Hindustan Times in India, it highlights the issues we wrote about many years ago and it's not just happening in India.

Critical Raw Materials are not just in white goods. In fact there are more within most of the ICT equipment we depend upon in our everyday use and where do you think these goods and the raw materials come from?

A shortage of semi-conductors around the whole world is a pandemic of it's own. We need the material of these wafer thin circuit chips,  which represent at least 40% in the value of a cars electronics.  We need them for our Phones, Tablets, Cameras,  Appliances, Play Stations, TV's…etc.

You name it we need these materials and businesses want your old stuff, and manufacturers are now legislated under the Eco Design Directive, to make them last longer and easier to recycle.  The EU has it's own policy to ensure it's supply and the UK Government does not have a specific CM strategy and no single department has responsibility for policy in this area either.

However there is a dichotomy for our society, which is the Elephant in the Room at COP26.

How is anyone going to balance the need to make money and yet consume less. I believe that's where the PM Boris Johnson sits and fails because he's trying to please everyone, when you just can't.  It's time to make the Elephant disappear and LEAD.  Only a partnership of consumer and business is going to change things and it needs to be transitional, as you can't change the Consumer Society we've depended on overnight. If we carry on like this, the rape of the earth's materials will leave us with an unrecoverable planet that no amount of environmental counselling will ever heal.

The Circle of Life should never have been one dependent on Consume and Waste. The Waste (Resource) Companies couldn't survive, if they didn't have our resources, but we as citizens keep demanding, so they keep collecting and the manufacturers keep making. We need to reduce this and valorising local genuine spares and CRM's, using Certified Repairers would also benefit local communities with safer repairs, lower costs, lower waste which also means all Appliance categories lasting longer when they are repaired properly by people with PROVEN electrical repair knowledge. This is a shared responsibility where businesses and citizens can all play a part using our Circular Economy Model. (LocalitEEE)

So perhaps the real paradigm shift lies with us as Consumers, and if we wake up and realise they NEED our goods and their constituent materials, then we should be seen as part of the Supply Chain. No longer should we have the wealthiest people in the world dictating and controlling what we want and holding on to the goods, by offering lease schemes for home appliances (Closed Loops), that take up more of our disposable income and stifle local economies, where its more sustainable to keep things local and deliver local Social Impacts under the control of the people where you live.

Our planets' survival is dependent on private finance from investors who want to make more money, to suit their lifestyles but so they can reinvest.  There's nothing wrong with that right now, but we must change to that we can work towards a fairer society aimed at sustaining our planet for future generations.

EEESafe & LocalitEEE believe Localism and ownership of consumption, is in the hands of the Consumers.  Working together, we hold the key to positive disruption working in partnership with local businesses and local community development.  The retention of all the Imported Electrical Goods and genuine Manufacturers Recycled Spares, mean we are a supply chain, that will help keep these raw materials on our Island and as locally as we can to benefit your community.

How we can work efficiently together with all stakeholders and keep these CRM's in the UK?

We start with our Appliance Safety Register with Free Alerts if it becomes a Fire Risk. We link your Appliance when you are changing or repairing it, to the Certified or Qualified EEESafe Repairer in your area and ensure the full value right down to the Materials, goes back into your own LocalitEEE Community Owned Marketplace. You will see the data live.  We can even help your Local Council run our EEESafe Qualified Training Programme that we've devised, which is based on the programme that's been around for over 40 Years.  When you're trained or certified, you can then repair most large and small appliances for the people on your Housing Estate and even rent and warranty items prevented from going to Waste.

Tonnage, Social outcomes, Waste Saving and donations we make, will all be attributed to you, and your community.

Watch our Short Video and see how we're going to do this