A beach chair and the 2025 election
Everyone’s been there: something breaks. What do we do then?
This summer, Jo’s beach chair gave up. A brand-new, identical one at Clas Ohlson costs 99 NOK. How much would it cost to repair? Maybe 500? 1000? And where would you even go? Hardly anyone has the patience to start that process.
But when Jo told us about the chair, we agreed at the office to have it fixed. We might be more than average interested in repair – and we know a lot of skilled people.
Result: A much cooler chair, now with a cover made from old sails.
Where: Sisters in Business, Nydalen Fabrikker, Oslo
Price of repair: 1536 kroner (yes, that’s insanely much!)
Why did it end up so expensive?
Clas Ohlson doesn’t have a system for repairs. Nor are their products designed to be easy to fix. It was complicated and fiddly even for highly skilled repairers. And that made it more costly.
THE POINT IS BIGGER THAN A BEACH CHAIR
If we had bought a new chair and thrown the old one away, we would have contributed to more production of steel and polyester, shipped from the other side of the planet. Instead, the money went into the local (circular) economy, while no new resources were taken out of the earth’s crust to make yet another product. That’s what we need to scale!
Some companies and some politicians are working to make this easier and cheaper. And that’s absolutely crucial. At the same time, we need to dare to kick Clas Ohlson and the “throwaway model” in the shins. Someone has to dare to raise the question: Is it okay that a chair from the other side of the world costs 99 NOK? Because as long as it’s much cheaper to buy new, the good solutions will lose.
So here’s our call to action: Vote with your wallet. Vote for the bike repair shop. Vote for the cobbler. Vote for the startups that want to fix things. And vote for the parties that dare to go big on the circular economy.
OUR OPINION?
We are politically independent. But one quick “no brainer” would be to remove VAT on repairs. Some parties are already fighting for this. The chair would have cost us 1280 instead of 1536. Just as important: Sisters in Business would have kept more of the money.
We’ve also long argued that there should be an environmental tax on products we typically don’t need (like clothes). More expensive to buy new. Cheaper to repair. Everyone wins.
Happy voting!
Best,
Jorunn, Adrian, Eline, Marita, Kristoffer, and Jo
P.S. Check out the circular economy hub Nydalen Fabrikker and the repair heroes Sisters in Business
PARTY GUIDES
We recommend checking out the party guides from environmental organizations. They ’re great at showing which parties actually have policies for people, nature, and climate alike.
