---
title: 'The Anti-E-Waste Movement: How Repairing One Laptop Saves Around 200kg of CO2'
date: '2026-07-05T08:07:19.946Z'
author: 
description: 'Why manufacturing, not everyday use, drives most of a laptop's carbon footprint - and how repairing instead of replacing avoids a significant chunk of it.'
image: 
published: 2026-07-05T08:07:19.946Z
type: 'article'
url: https://www.repatch.live/right-to-repair/the-anti-e-waste-movement-how-repairing-one-laptop-saves-around-200kg-of-co2
id: 6a4a10b7ce612ccc9a3e0b24
---

[image  priority=true schema=false]

**E-waste** is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, and laptops and phones make up a disproportionate share of it. The single biggest lever for reducing that impact isn't a new recycling scheme - it's simply keeping the devices we already own in use for longer.

## Where a laptop's carbon footprint actually comes from

Life-cycle studies consistently show that manufacturing, not everyday use, accounts for the majority of a laptop's total **carbon footprint** - typically around **70-80%** of it. Mining the raw materials, refining them, assembling components, and shipping the finished product all happen before you ever switch the device on.

## What that means for repair vs. replacement

Because manufacturing dominates the footprint, extending a laptop's working life through repair - rather than replacing it - avoids that upfront cost entirely. Industry life-cycle assessments put the manufacturing footprint of an average laptop at roughly **200kg of CO2e** - in the region of driving a family car from London to Edinburgh and back.

## Multiply that by scale

One repaired laptop avoiding a landfill-bound replacement is a modest saving on its own. Multiplied across the millions of working laptops replaced every year for a fixable fault, the potential reduction is substantial - without requiring anyone to buy anything new at all.

## Do your bit, without the hassle

**Repatch** exists to make the lower-carbon choice the easy one, not the inconvenient one. Book a repair, a courier collects your **laptop** from home or work, a professional technician fixes the actual fault, and it's returned to you - often within **2 hours** - keeping it, and its footprint, out of the waste stream for good.