Dutch encouraged to repair, not discard broken items in new campaign

The ideal advertising foundation SIRE is launching a campaign on Monday to encourage Dutch people to not throw away their broken items immediately, but first try and repair them. SIRE hopes that the campaign will make Dutch aware of the value of their possessions, ANP reports.

"Unfortunately, a lot of things disappear in the waste, especially if a product breaks down. But if something is broken, it is not worthless yet. Where we were once used to repairing things ourselves, we now increasingly opt for convenience and prefer to replace things if they no longer function properly", SIRE director Lucy van der Helm said to the news wire.

According to SIRE, each Dutch person throws away an average of 18 kilograms of electrical appliances per year. Dutch also throw away an average of 15 kilos of textiles and 16 kilos of toys and furniture each year.

Dutch only consider repairing an item if replacing it costs over 100 euros, Van Helm said. "That's a shame, because that's how we throw away valuable things unnecessarily, while you can use them much longer if you repair them."