Chances are you currently have one or more appliances or devices in your house in need of repair. You have a difficult decision on your hands: Do you repair or replace it? Both involve time and money.
An important factor in your decision to buy a new product or fix the one you have is probably the expense. Another is the environmental impact, which isn’t always clear. After all, if you buy a new product, you’ll have to dispose of the old one. But making endless repairs to an outdated model can expend significant resources.
So, how do you decide which is the “greenest” direction to turn? Consider the following points.
The Energy Impact
About 60% of electricity is generated from fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. These fuels carry massive carbon footprints, adding millions of tons of CO2 to the atmosphere daily. If you can reduce power consumption by recycling an old appliance and buying a new one that is more efficient, you may save money as well as lower the greenhouse gas impact of your household.
The ENERGY STAR program, established by the EPA in 1992, remains the gold standard for evaluating energy and water efficiency in appliances and electronics. The ENERGY STAR website allows you to look up products and their annual energy/water usage, so you can see just how much a new model will conserve. Older devices, especially those manufactured before ENERGY STAR adoption accelerated in the late 1990s, tend to consume significantly more energy than modern models. If your appliance is 15 to 20 years old, upgrading to a certified product could lower your utility bills substantially.
Despite its decades-long track record—having helped Americans save over $500 billion in energy costs while avoiding around 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions—the program has faced repeated political threats. In 2018, the Trump Administration proposed eliminating ENERGY STAR from the federal budget, calling it an unnecessary expense. The move sparked swift, bipartisan backlash. Congress, backed by utilities, manufacturers, and environmental groups, rejected the proposal and preserved the program’s funding, recognizing its high return on investment and popularity with consumers.
In 2025, the Trump campaign renewed its effort to dismantle ENERGY STAR, proposing to terminate the program as part of a broader EPA reorganization. Critics responded immediately: the program costs about $32 million annually but delivers roughly $350 in energy savings for every dollar invested. ENERGY STAR currently saves U.S. households up to $450 a year and benefits both consumers and the climate. Industry response has been strong: over 1,000 companies and utilities signed a letter urging Congress to defend the program and maintain a level playing field in appliance efficiency labeling.
Given ENERGY STAR’s long-standing bipartisan support and practical benefits, Congress is again expected to reject the move and keep the program intact.
It’s unlikely that repairing your existing electronics and/or appliances will have much of an impact on their energy/water usage. But a repair can buy time that may save you money and provide better options when you choose to replace. One more year of higher utility bills to support outdated technology may represent the bridge to bigger savings next year.
Perform a Self-Diagnosis
The internet is the ultimate resource for the do-it-yourselfer. It’s likely you can find someone to provide you with a free solution for almost any problem. YouTube, for example, returns 76.1 million results for the search “how to repair.” Everything you need to know when starting a repair is available somewhere on the net.
One DIY resource is Fixitclub.com, which provides repair manuals for everything from cars to window screens. If you can identify the problem and the repair process is five steps or fewer, you’ll often find repair is environmentally preferred to the impact of transporting new products from the store, opening/disposing of packaging, and setting up a new product. Some other great resources include the electronics-focused ifixit.com and doityourself.com, a home-and-garden repair guide to a variety of different products that you can repair yourself.
The Warranty Factor
When buying new products, especially electronics, you’ll often be asked about purchasing a coverage agreement offering repairs if the product malfunctions. Most products come with a one-year coverage plan, meaning the additional plan is likely provided by the retailer or a third party.
The programs generate lots of profit for retailers because buyers seldom use them fully. While these plans can reduce your need to replace broken products, you still have to consider the environmental impact of shipping a product for repair.
Investigate products with trade-in programs, which will collect your old product for refurbishment and reuse. This means you can own and use the product for a pre-determined amount of time, then return it to the retailer for trade-in value that reduces the price of a new product.
Common trade-in programs for electronics include Best Buy, Amazon’s trade-in service for eligible items, and phone trade-in services for specific brands, including AT&T, Samsung, Verizon, and Apple.
You can always ask about warranty coverage when purchasing a new product, but they are not a guarantee you’ll save money or reduce your environmental impact.
Environmental Impact: Repair vs. Replace
The Climate Cost of Manufacturing vs. the Value of Repair
When deciding whether to repair or replace, consider not just the financial cost but also the carbon cost. Manufacturing new appliances requires energy-intensive processes: mining rare earth metals, producing plastics, powering assembly lines, and shipping products around the globe. Each of these stages contributes to a device’s embodied carbon footprint, which is often far greater than the emissions associated with keeping an older product in service.
A lifecycle analysis of small household electronics found that repairing and reusing products instead of replacing them can reduce climate-related impacts by as much as 40%, particularly when devices are kept in use beyond 10 years. Another estimate suggests that repairing rather than replacing can cut the environmental impact of an appliance by up to 30% annually.
Every new product replaced adds to the world’s mounting e-waste problem. The Global E-Waste Monitor, project of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, reported a record 62 million metric tons of e-waste generated globally in 2024, a figure projected to grow rapidly unless consumption patterns change. Choosing to repair can help curb the waste wave by extending product lifespans and reducing the volume of reusable materials headed to landfill.
Repair Supports Circular Economy Goals
When you repair instead of replace, you’re actively participating in a more circular economy, a system focused on maximizing the value and life of materials and products. Circular practices reduce the demand for virgin resources and prevent premature landfill contributions. Even when a newer product is more energy-efficient, the carbon cost of making and transporting it may outweigh the savings for years. According to the Sustainable Living Association, even modest repairs can help prevent resource-intensive new production and promote more responsible consumption.
Repairing worn or broken appliances is almost always more environmentally responsible than replacing them, unless the existing device is exceptionally inefficient or near total failure. In most cases, repairs conserve energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and fight e-waste more effectively than immediate replacement. When repair is feasible and cost-effective, it’s not just the frugal choice—it’s the greener one.
Editor’s note: Originally published on February 18, 2014, this article was most recently updated in July 2025.
