Editorial: Right to repair win for consumers, shops, climate

By The Herald Editorial Board

Readers of a certain age may remember tagging along with dad for a trip to an electronic supply shop to pick up a replacement vacuum tube for the family TV set.

Those hulking TVs disguised as colonial furniture — and the in-store testing boards that allowed one to plug in tubes to determine which had gone bad — are long gone. But the thought of being able to fix it yourself or even taking a broken item to a shop for an affordable repair has hung around, even as consumer products have advanced to a point of complexity that forces a choice between tossing the item and buying a replacement or hoping the original manufacturer will offer an affordable fix without trying to convince you to upgrade to the iDealyBob 26 with five camera lenses and an AI companion.

For more than a decade, Congress and legislatures in all 50 states have considered legislation that would restore some level of a right to repair for a range of consumer products, including smartphones and other electronic devices, motor vehicles that are increasingly computer-controlled and tractors and other farm equipment.

U.S. Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez, D-Wash., introduced legislation last year that would have given the Federal Trade Commission authority to regulate the practices of original manufacturers to allow customers or repair shops to install replacement parts and issue information to facilitate those repairs.

Six states — California, Colorado, Minnesota, Maine, New York and Oregon — have passed their own right-to-repair laws. Oregon’s law went into effect this January.

Washington state may be the closest it’s been to adopting similar legislation with House Bill 1483, sponsored by Rep. Mia Gregerson, D-SeaTac. The bill, which passed the House, 94-1, would require original manufacturers of digital electronic products to make parts, tools, schematics and other documentation available to independent repair providers on fair and reasonable terms beginning Jan. 1, 2026.

The legislation is limited in scope to digital devices, exempting motor vehicles, energy storage devices, farm equipment, medical equipment, internet routers, video game equipment and similar devices and life-safety, security and fire detection devices. As well, manufacturers aren’t required to divulge trade secrets. And manufactures are further exempt if they provide a replacement of equal or better value for the item at no additional cost to the customer.

Beyond the consumer protections that right-to-repair can deliver, the legislation is seen as beneficial to small businesses, in particular independent repair shops. and key to the reduction of electronic waste and greenhouse gas emissions tied to the manufacture of digital equipment.

Public testimony Wednesday before the Senate Environment, Energy and Technology Committee expanded on those points.

Heather Trim, executive director for Zero Waste Washington, a recycling and climate advocacy group that has been pursuing right-to-repair legislation in the state for eight years, said one question she’s routinely asked by consumers is about how to reduce the amount of waste generated by the products they buy.

“I always say, the No. 1 thing you can do is try to make your stuff last longer,” she said. “This is a vary hard-core zero-waste bill and there is a lot of public support behind it.”

Charlie Fisher, with the Washington Public Interest Research Group, agreed that there was strong support for the right to repair, based on the extensive outreach the group conducts and polling that showed support among 7 of 10 state residents.

“We went out and knocked on thousands of doors across Washington in support of right to repair, and heard firsthand from many constituents that they want to be able to repair their devices when they break,” he said. “We estimate that if Washington households could repair electronics instead of buying new, that could collectively save Washington households over a billion dollars a year.”

The state organization also estimates that if state residents were able to extend the life of their phones by one year it would remove the equivalent of the greenhouse gas emissions from 8,100 vehicles. The group also estimates that Washington families currently are spending an average of $1,767 each year on purchases of new electronic devices, and could save about 22 percent of that each year with a right-to-repair law.

Steven Rhine, who runs a small electronics repair shop in Vancouver, Wash., said he’s able to do some repairs, even without the ready availability of parts and information from manufacturers, but said he supports the legislation because it will make that work simpler and more affordable for customers.

“Right to repair is very essential to affordable repairs,” Rhine said. “If I have to spend four or five hours reverse engineering a circuit to be able to repair it, versus spending 10 minutes with a schematic, it reduces the cost to make repairs economically viable.”

While limited to smaller electronic devices, the legislation offers a chance for the law to show what its broader application could mean for consumers, small businesses, waste reduction and the climate. The near-unanimous support in the House speaks to the care taken in crafting the bill and the work made to provide fairness to consumers and the manufacturers who develop the products that make our lives easier.

Fostering the right to repair will help consumers hold on to those products a little longer.