In Lahti, smart device such as smart phone and smart watches repair services are available. Households value reuse and repair.
And yet, replacement often wins. Why?
Because at the moment of failure, repair feels uncertain.
❌ Prices are unclear
❌ Quality is hard to judge
❌ Services are difficult to compare or even find
The Lahti Circ@Home pilot starts from this reality — and from a clear feasibility boundary.
🧭 What we can change — and what we can’t
The pilot does not attempt to run long behavioural programmes with households. Instead, it focuses on what is realistically actionable:
✔ improving decision conditions
✔ increasing transparency and visibility
✔ strengthening municipal legitimacy
✔ supporting repair at the episodic decision moment
💡 Three complementary interventions
- Smart for Repair – a lightweight decision-support tool that makes repair options comparable and understandable
- Lahti Circular Economy Ecosystem Map – visualising where circular services exist (and where gaps remain)
- Repair Voucher (concept phase) – exploring affordability and the city’s enabling role
Together, these interventions target the structural failure points of repair decisions: missing information, low visibility, and perceived risk.
🔺 Circularity through coordination — not persuasion
Circularity here does not emerge from nudging households. It emerges when:
- local repair SMEs provide technical capacity (R4 Repair)
- the municipality acts as an orchestrator, enabler and legitimiser
- households are supported as decision-makers, not behaviour-change subjects
Blogs and news
Households are ready to repair – when making the decision becomes easier
In the Circ@Home Lahti micropilot, more than 10 households tested the Smart for Repair application, which helps users compare smart-device repair options, costs, warranties and service providers. The pilot showed that households are often willing to repair, but need clearer, more trustworthy and easily accessible information before choosing repair over replacement.
Circular services are not about labels – they are about making circular choices work in everyday life
One of the key findings from the Circ@Home project is that circularity happens only when sustainable choices become visible, trusted, affordable and easy enough to use in everyday situations.
🔧 Why repair fails — even when services exist
Pienikin muutos päätöksenteon logiikassa voi siirtää valintaa kohti korjaamista. Ja juuri siinä piilee kiertotalouden hiljainen, mutta vaikuttava vipuvoima.
