Planned obsolescence

Planned obsolescence is the practice of designing or managing a product so that its useful life is shortened, meaning it has to be repaired or replaced sooner than necessary. It runs against the principles of the circular economy, which aims to keep products and materials in use for as long as possible.

Types of planned obsolescence

• Technical: parts or components that degrade ahead of time or are very hard to replace.
• Software-related: the manufacturer stops providing updates and the product loses features or security even though its hardware still works.
• Aesthetic or market-driven: products that come to be seen as outdated because of changing fashions or frequent launches of new models, which encourages replacing them while they still work.

Environmental consequences

Shortening product lifespans has a cumulative effect along the whole value chain:

• More waste: products are discarded sooner, which increases the volume of waste to be managed.
• More raw material use: every replaced product requires new materials to be extracted and processed.
• More embodied carbon: manufacturing a new product generates emissions on top of those of the one it replaces. This is known as the embodied carbon footprint.

Regulatory and design measures to tackle it

• Right to repair: the Right to Repair Directive (R2R) promotes repair as a real alternative to replacement.
• Repairability information: the repairability index helps buyers understand how easily a product can be repaired.
• Ecodesign: ecodesign builds environmental criteria, such as durability, into the design stage.
• European product rules: the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) sets a framework for defining ecodesign requirements, and the Digital Product Passport (DPP) makes information available that is useful for repairing, reusing or recycling.

Some countries have gone further: in France, planned obsolescence has been a criminal offence since 2015.

Why it matters for your company

If you make or sell products, durability and repairability influence your waste, your material use and the carbon footprint of your products. Traceable data on materials, suppliers and emissions makes it easier to apply durable design criteria and respond to product regulation.

Manglai automates the collection and traceability of ESG data, including carbon footprint, waste management and product footprint. Its AI reads supplier invoices and documents in PDF, with audit-ready data. Discover how Manglai can help you.