The House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee hearing on February 15 was a success, and HF1337 was referred on to Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee. You can see a recording of the hearing here. Thank you to all the testifiers who spoke in support of the bill, as well as all those who wrote letters. We will continue to post updates for everyone to follow the bill progress at reusemn.org/right-to-repair.

In the meantime, we wanted to share the latest scorecard from U.S. PIRG on laptop and cellphone repairability. While there are claims that the industry is responding to consumer demand for repairable technology, that paints a grossly inaccurate picture of what is actually available. "Failing the Fix" shows that many of the largest manufacturers have a long way to go and why Right to Repair is so necessary.

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ADVISORY: ‘Failing the Fix’ scorecard grades tech giants including Apple, Google, on how fixable their devices are

Households in the United States spend nearly $1,500 on new electronics per year. We rely on our cellphones and computers to work, learn, stay connected and much more. When your device breaks, you need to be able to fix it for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, many phones and laptops on the market are built to be difficult to fix, so they become essentially disposable. How can you know if you are buying a product that can be repaired? 

In this year’s updated “Failing the Fix” scorecard, U.S. PIRG Education Fund calculates a repairability score for the most popular cellphone and laptop brands. Our updated scorecard reviews more than 330 products on the market. To determine the rankings, we used the "Repairability Index," which makers of laptops, cellphones and some other devices need to put on their products in France. We give good grades to manufacturers that are designing devices to last and bad grades to those that are failing the fix.

The prevalence of unfixable stuff is a problem for both consumers and the planet. Electronic waste is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that it is now the fastest-growing part of our domestic municipal waste stream.  Americans could save a combined $40 billion if they were able to repair - instead of replace - products and extend those devices’ lifespans by 50 percent.