Standards Development

Scope

This document provides generic methods for the assessment of:

a)      the ability of products to be repaired;

b)      the ability of products, or parts thereof, to be reused;

c)      the ability of products to be upgraded.

This document includes generic criteria and methods relevant for assessing the ability of certain parts to be removed from products for the purpose of repair, reuse or upgrade.

The methods in this document include product-related and support-related criteria when the product is placed on the market, taking into account knowledge of parts that are likely to fail, need replacing, or have reuse potential.

This document is focused on assessing the before-mentioned aspects. The decision whether a product should be repaired, reused or upgraded, is dependent on a range of factors such as health and safety, as well as economic, legal and environmental aspects. However, the question of whether it is reasonable to repair, reuse or upgrade products is outside of the scope of this document.

This document is a basic environment horizontal publication focusing on essential requirements and is primarily intended for use by committees in the preparation of publications within the area of environment in accordance with the principles laid down in IEC Guide 123. Wherever applicable, it is the responsibility of committees to make use of environment basic publications in the preparation of their environment group and product publications.