Oregon Repair Bill Moves Closer To Passage. And: 4 Decades Of Lies About Plastics Recycling
Oregon Repair Bill Moves Closer To Passage. And: 4 Decades Of Lies About Plastics Recycling
An Oregon House Committee voted to approve a repair bill, moving it one step closer to passage. Also: the plastics industry knew recycling wouldn't work. And: appliances are less reliable.
Oregon House Committee Approves Right to Repair Bill
A committee in Oregon’s House of Representatives voted in favor of Senate Bill 1596, legislation to create a legal right to repair electronics in the state.
The vote by the House Committee on Business and Labor passed the bill with a bipartisan vote of 7-3. The vote sends the bill to the full Oregon House of Representatives for a vote. A successful vote in the full House would send the bill to Oregon Governor Tina Kotek to be signed into law, making Oregon the fourth state to pass right to repair legislation after New York in 2022, and Minnesota and California in 2023.
Senate Bill 1596 requires original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) to make available to an owner of consumer electronic equipment or an independent repair provider documentation, tools, parts or other device or implement that the OEM makes available to an authorized service provider for the purpose of diagnosing, maintaining or repairing consumer electronic equipment. The law empowers Oregon’s Attorney General to receive consumer complaints about repair restrictions and to make an investigative demand of a manufacturer that appears to have violated the Act. OEMs that are found to have violated the law could face civil penalties of “not more than $1,000 for each day of the violation.”
Industry Hid Data On Plastics Recycling
This month, a bombshell investigative exposé revealed that the plastic industry knowingly promoted recycling as a silver-bullet solution while being aware for more than 30 years that it is not a viable fix for managing plastic waste.
The report, published by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), revealed internal documents showing that industry insiders acknowledged the economic and technical challenges of plastic recycling while concealing this information in their marketing campaigns.
The report recalls reports about multi decade efforts within industries like oil and gas, as well as tobacco, in which the findings of internal research and data about environmental and public health risks was hidden, while robust lobbying operations promoted messages to policymakers that were diametrically opposed to what the industry’s research showed, e.g. that oil doesn’t cause climate change and cigarettes don’t cause cancer.
In the case of plastics, efforts to promote the use of cheap, single use plastics date to the 1950s and coincide with a concerted effort to divert public attention from the polluting effects of plastic, a report in the Guardian notes. At a 1956 industry conference, the Society of the Plastics Industry, a trade group, told producers to focus on “low cost, big volume” and “expendability” and to aim for materials to end up “in the garbage wagon”.
After decades selling the public on the idea that plastics can simply be tossed into landfills, the industry began to face public backlash in the 1980s amid grassroots calls for bans on plastic products. The result: an industry push for recycling.
The Plastics Recycling Foundation was formed in 1984, and brought together petrochemical companies and bottlers to fund campaigns highlighting the sector’s commitment to recycling. There was only one problem: the industry knew all along that plastics recycling was neither economically or practically viable, the report shows. The Vinyl Institute noted in the mid to late 1980s that plastic recycling would not solve the “solid waste problem” and could not go on indefinitely.
Forty years later, plastics production shows no sign of decreasing. An OECD report from 2022 found that the world is producing twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago, with just 9% successfully recycled and the rest ending up in landfill, incinerated or leaking into the environment.
The accumulation of plastic in the environment, driven in part by the mass production and disposal of goods, is creating crises in microplastics, biodiversity loss, water and air pollution and countless other disasters—what some are calling a polycrisis.
Increasingly, the notion that nudging consumers or businesses to change their behavior will be enough is fading in the face of facts.
In her book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes writes about the fallacy of free-market thinking to solve our problems, using the oil and cigarette industries as a prime example:
The idea that free markets produce optimum allocation of resources depends on participants having perfect information. But one of several ironies of our story is that our protagonists [the oil and cigarette lobby] did everything in their power to ensure that the American people did not have good (much less perfect) information on crucial issues… The American belief in fairness and the importance of hearing “both sides” was used and abused by people who didn’t want to admit the truth about the impacts of industrial capitalism.
A free-market approach treats consumers as the problem, and that they must change. But it’s no question that people are motivate to shop and act sustainably. A recent poll found that 55% of U.S. consumers would ditch a brand or company. But voting with dollars won’t stop industries from lobbying against environmental- and repair-focused initiatives. Hopefully, we see the lies for what they are now—and not in 30 years.
Repair Coffee: Kevin Kenney on Ag. Repair
Big thank you to our paid subscribers for your support making our writing and live events happen! This month we welcome Kevin Kenney after Paul’s write up on him a few weeks ago to discuss the state of repair in agriculture and what is the horizon for him in 2024.
Other News
You’re not imagining it: appliances are less reliable than they used to be. A report by the Wall Street Journal finds that American households spent 43% more on home appliances in 2023 than in 2013, even though prices for the category have declined 12% from a decade ago. One reason for the discrepancy: a higher rate of replacement. The report is based on Yelp data that showed users requested 58% more quotes from appliance repair businesses last month than they did in January 2022. Industry sources pointed the finger at the push toward computerization, a higher quantity of individual components in appliances and manufacturer reliance on flimsier materials. “We’re making things more complicated, they’re harder to fix and more expensive to fix,” Aaron Gianni, the founder of do-it-yourself home-repair app Plunjr, told the Journal.
There is growing concern over agricultural plastic usage, with efforts increasing to mitigate plastic waste in farming. Advocates for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations want to shift the burden away from farmers for solving this problem to those who produce the plastic itself.
The Minnesota Farmers Union is prioritizing Right to Repair this legislative session. President Gary Wertish highlights efforts to expand Right to Repair laws for agricultural equipment and address escalating healthcare costs, emphasizing the impact on farmers and small business owners. While progress was made last year, further action is sought, particularly regarding healthcare affordability and accessibility.
Is the EU enforcing right to repair rules? When the power supply on his Beko brand washing machine failed and damaged a microcontroller in the washer, the hacker and reverse engineer behind the ChuxMan Skynetwalker Twitter account contacted the device manufacturer, asking for a copy of the firmware. His plan: replace the damaged MCU (microcontroller) then burn the firmware to it and use it to replace the original. Laws in the EU, where he is based, seemed to support that. The European Parliament approved regulations three years ago giving EU residents the ‘right to repair’ and obliging manufacturers to provide manuals, tools and components to facilitate owner repair. Beko saw things differently: refusing multiple requests for copies of its firmware. “We do not supply the firmware of our equipment. It is not a computer equipment, it is a household appliance and it is treated / repaired as such.” Their proposal: buy a new “plate” - the part containing the failed microcontroller, which costs as much as the washing machine itself. Instead, he was able to recover and repair firmware from the damaged device and begin the process of replacing the damaged microcontroller to get the washer working again.
Ugo Vallauri on Redefining Production and Consumption
Belgium is introducing a repairability index for household appliances, following France's lead. While a positive step, concerns arise about its effectiveness without broader support measures. Plans also under scrutiny for lacking spare part prices in the index calculation.
How repairable is the Apple Vision Pro? Not very. The findings suggest that the Vision Pro’s repairability is limited. Critical components, such as the front displays, back Persona display, and sensors, are intricately linked, possibly for calibration purposes. This interdependency prevents the headset from operating with parts from another unit, posing a significant challenge for repairs outside of Apple’s authorized service providers.
Establishing localized and community-led supply chain networks for clothing to promote sustainability in the fashion industry. Research focusing on creating social production networks shows that resource exchange and value creation within local communities can address issues of linear supply chains, inequity, and pollution in the current fashion industry. Through participatory community-focused research approaches, there are opportunities to identify hyper-local circular system configurations and benefits for local communities.
Framework is now offering a $499 modular version of its Laptop 13, lacking memory or storage but equipped with an 11th-generation Intel i7 CPU, aiming to reduce costs by utilizing leftover parts, while also selling refurbished RAM at half the price, although it falls short of offering screen or GPU upgrades; meanwhile, preorders for its gaming-focused Laptop 16 have begun shipping, though reviews highlight issues like glitches, flimsiness, heat, and noise, making the cheaper Laptop 13 an alternative for basic computing needs.
Disposable vapes are a growing environmental hazard, contributing to waste and pollution due to their unrecyclable nature and toxic battery components, prompting calls for stricter regulations and enforcement to curb their widespread availability and usage.