Pending U.S. legislation could force manufacturers to make repair parts and information available at fair prices
The Consumer Technology Association estimated that residents of the United States bought 183 million smartphones in 2016. There are already as many TVs in this country as there are people. That’s a lot of electronics, and these numbers are just going up. On balance, all this technology is probably making our lives better. But there’s a downside, too: The stuff often malfunctions. Unlike the 30-year-old mixer on your kitchen counter that refuses to die, new technology—especially the smart devices with fancy, embedded electronics—breaks more quickly. That trend, confirmed by a recent study by the German government, applies not just to delicate products like smartphones and tablets but also to equipment we would expect to last for a long time—like televisions, washing machines, and even tractors. Manufacturers would prefer to sell you their latest models rather than repair your old electronics, so they work to make fixing their products too expensive or too impractical. It’s a global problem because the marketplace for technology is global, and people everywhere are affected. With so many people throwing out so much broken stuff, it should come as no surprise that e-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream, with tens of millions of tons discarded annually around the world. Tossing things out instead of fixing them has far-reaching consequences—for consumers, for the economy, and for the environment. Indeed, a future in which nothing ever gets repaired isn’t bright for anyone except the people trying to sell you new products. And many of us are not prepared to accept that future without a fight. In 2013, a group of concerned consumers, recyclers, refurbishers, environmentalists, digital-rights advocates, and repair specialists in the United States teamed up to found Repair.org, of which one of us (Gordon-Byrne) is executive director and the other (Wiens) is chairman of the board. We’re working to make sure that when something breaks, U.S. consumers can easily find the information and parts they need to repair it, or else have it repaired by whomever they choose. Over the past few years, this battle has been heating up. In 2017, twelve states introduced “right to repair” legislation that would make it easier for consumers to fix broken digital equipment. With grassroots support, Repair.org is leading the charge to turn these bills into laws. Not surprisingly, we’ve encountered significant resistance, not from lawmakers but from lobbyists hired by large tech companies to kill right-to-repair bills behind closed doors. You might think that these legislative battles are inconsequential or don’t have too much to do with you personally. But if you believe that when you buy something you actually own it, you should pay attention as we explain why that may not be the case and give the history of how we got to today’s very odd situation. Read more...