my hands are sweaty again hey folks were
we're just hanging out we'll be we'll be
getting started in a couple minutes so
so I was just a face Hardware show and
they had this flex seal booth trying to
get it to I'm just gonna kill the audio
on that page and and so the the flex
seal folks all they were doing was
looping the Jerry Seinfeld bit on flex
seal when he was on Jimmy Kimmel the
other day and it was great it was the
best thing and he's talking about these
late-night flexi lads
it was yells hit the Sun Tobit is he
saying I just wished that I had
something that was broken that I could
use as I'm living my life in hopes and
dreams and something will start leaping
so I'm gonna get on board because these
Flexsteel people just seem like they're
having so much fun for myself yeah this
is that that's this is oh yeah oh
sealed booth pretty intense yeah did you
see anything like it was like the
weirdest I guess uh I mean there's like
that they have the whole seasonal
section so there's all the Christmas
stuff so it's what it's March and
there's just aisles miles of Christmas
crap that nobody wants
uh-huh so that was that was exciting
what else I mean there was a lady with a
like showing off chainsaws she was doing
uh doing a wood carving that was really
cool
it's just everything that you could
possibly imagine that like most Ace
Hardware search is similar but they're
pretty unique I guess like if you're if
owners can choose like what they want to
buy in the store there's probably
everything different so there were
people reppin Jack Link's jerky and so I
was like tell me about the jerky
business so it turns out it's very
competitive so they're talking about how
hard it is to get you know a slot in the
store and
and how hard they work to get their
displays and then how they'll send a
Jack Link's display the hardware store
and then they'll buy somebody else's
jerky and they'll put it on the Jack
Link's display so it's just a whole
world that you don't think about that's
the video quality looking for everybody
else it looks pretty good for us here
and I'd love to know where everybody
who's on the stream why are you from
how's the video look where you're from
tell us and we'll give you a shout out I
was surprised how many people just
remember the world came to the our live
teardown at the last night
yeah I was really cool yeah I was how is
it hoping for some kind of new
interesting hardware design from Samsung
ms9 that's like it's the same as the s8
which is the same as the s7 which is the
same as the the note 7 bumped up the
camera and that's what a lot of people
you know like to look for but I don't
know if that's worthy of the upgrade
folks on here from India Illinois Sweden
Boston awesome I don't see anything for
sella for you yet awesome well well well
whoa we'll keep the discussion broad
then so that we can talk about other
stuff yeah and definitely ask questions
as we're chatting here once we get
Chicago New Orleans real tall right
finally we got somebody from California
okay I was the only friend she at the
iFixit Pro unconference there yeah hi
Carl
wait Carl done Carl's on I met Carl Carl
come hang out with us again New York
Prince Amir there we go said your name
cool I guess so we got more people from
Sweden than California
we'll get we get that Sweden needs to do
is really needs to get on board with
this Sweden has fast pro repair
legislation right to repair yet mmm well
stew clock let's get going it started
alright well thanks everybody for
joining us
my name is Kelsey and this is Kyle CEO
co-found or co-founder of iFixit and
then we also have a Matt sieminski from
pulse
with us today and we're today we're just
talking about right to repair
legislation right to repair is being
introduced in California and it's the
18th state this year from 12 last year
and if passed manufacturers will be
required to offer replacement parts and
repair manuals and information to both
you know you know private fixers like us
and to private repair shops so but yeah
but this isn't anything new right so
going back all the way back to 2012
right yeah yes a retro repair is I mean
this is something we've had legislation
on the books for right to repair around
cars for a long time the most recent one
was in Massachusetts in 2012 and it said
hey make sure that local mechanics can
get what they need to fix their yeah any
car so yeah I'm going ocol mechanic with
our GM you can go with a BMW and and
you're gonna be able get it fixed
because I know if I was kind of forced
into going to the dealership for
everything that would be pretty
frustrating so it's kind of opened up
this you know it's made it easier for
all of us to get our cars fixed and
created an aftermarket for parts for
autos right and that's you know that
could happen yeah you can go into a
mechanic and you need a new bumper for
your car and they'll say well do you
want the OEM bumper it's this price or
you don't want the aftermarket bumper
it's a little bit less and you can
choose you can say no actually I really
care about having the OEM part where
right now and a lot of electronics
there's no way to get in the way in part
yeah and so it's interesting if you go
back to how how did write to repair get
happen in Massachusetts what was the
process like its idea that we can pass a
law is really daunting and challenging
it turned out it just it took some of
the mechanic groups getting together
getting organized and then getting
getting their friends they've put
together a network of folks in
Massachusetts that cared about the issue
and they went to the legislature and got
a couple legislators to say yeah we
think it's a good idea and then you
start building momentum and you get more
and more legislators on board so we've
been involved since 2011 and did we lose
so when did repaired org I guess become
the big you know movement and push
behind it has it been since 2011 er we I
think when
we started Matt maybe it was like 2014
yeah but now you know we work with
repaired our door to keep get
legislation you know introduced into
States and we're working with gay Gordon
Byrne and who is the director of repairs
org she's the one kind of up bringing
everybody together but ya repaired other
work really it's it's a network of
people that are interested in the issue
it's it's repair businesses its tool
wholesalers it's you know companies that
provide managed repair services for
companies it's a pretty broad network
concerned computers right and and and so
there has been a history I mean we have
a number of states introduced bills
nobody has passed it yet for electronics
but there's there's a lot of momentum
people are working on we've had a number
of hearing so far this year so
Washington state introduced legislation
for the first time and they had a they
had a hearing in their Environment
Committee a couple months ago and very
smart
and legislators that really got it we
had manufacturers saying that well
people shouldn't be able to thinker with
the code on on these this equipment the
code is dangerous and and legislature I
said look I've been working on my car my
entire life how is how is tinkering with
software any different than my car and I
think from the manufacturers perspective
I mean they're trying to protect their
intellectual property but like I always
say you can protect your IP and allow
people to have access and information
like not mutually I guess exclusive or
so and you can also you know hold people
accountable for when they do try to copy
your steal your IP but not everybody
that's opening it up and iPhone is
trying to make you know the huawei p9 or
something that looks like you know
really similar so Matt what Matt runs
runs a lot of service network at pulse
which has repair technicians around the
country Matt can you give us your
perspective on what what the problem is
like why is this kind of repairing
legislation needed yeah I mean I think
that we've determined and we realize
that it's needed just because of the
access to repairing common issues that
are affecting consumers and really how
limited the the OEMs really are in their
capacity to meet those
you can go back a couple years ago to
issues like error 53 and how you know we
had software that was limiting the
harbor functionality of a device and go
back I think a year ago or two years ago
with Samsung Galaxy Note 7 when the
battery fires and just in that one
example it was really evident that they
were not equipped to handle an issue of
this scale and independent shops were
well-positioned to solve that problem
they could meet you where you are you
could take it to your local shop and
they could do the repair probably within
you know an hour and have you taken out
taking that dangerous component out of
your phone and then you're on your way
and you're good to go
that's the most basic understanding of
why this is necessary is there are
problems that keep popping up that
manufacturers will not design around and
they just are not equipped to handle
when they do pop up right so get board
level issues right the independence can
fix I mean I we have a video in the
channel where I fixed YouTube backlight
issue on on an iPhone a lot of times you
use a cheap USB charger and it fries a
component on the board and they can be a
five-cent part but you need you need
access to schematics in order to be able
to do that repair and even if so you
know some you know manufacturers might
not do you know some of like board level
repairs and other repairs like that but
it's also just like a supply issue like
we're seeing with battery gate there's
only 500 Apple stores with a few texts
in there but there's millions of
millions of people better need a new
battery and or that qualify for that new
battery program so you're right you know
Matt like you mentioned they're just not
equipped we can't just leave it up to
them or up to John Deere whoever else to
tell us you know when and how we need to
get something fixed because they just
don't have enough people to do it
there's not enough people in the world
and you know if you go to look at the
list of Apple stores in the US there are
a handful of states we'll only have one
store like you know expected in Alaska
but like I think it was New Mexico and
Kansas only one Apple store and so yeah
we can't rely on them to fix our stuff
because there's just too many things
breaking they're producing way too much
in every single year with upgrades and
just with the way that we treat our
devices and things and the lifespan and
the way that they're designed the
lifespan shorter so
yeah there's just there's not enough for
paratext to go around and if we could
release you know this information to
some of these private repair shops it
also drive down prices too for after my
I mean I feel like there's almost you
know some of these manufacturers are
missing out on the aftermarket parts
like making money in aftermarket parts
and selling that kind of right let's
stuff I I'm absolutely it's a way to
diversify their business I think that
the car manufacturers make a lot of
money off yeah that's market service
like billions and billion dollar
industry right yeah but you have
somebody like Apple and Samsung they
won't sell batteries to anybody that's a
huge business opportunity right and I
think you know at the end of the day too
when you look at the traditional
consumer at least in my family like
we're not inclined to go out and buy a
new device every every cycle right we
want to keep it we have lasting longer
and batteries are the simplest example
of something that's we can replace that
keeps something running longer we do it
for our cars like it's nothing you know
we spend 100 bucks and get a new battery
and throw it in there and it's good to
go we should be able to do that with our
electronic devices and then further we
should be able to do that ourselves so
that you know we don't have to wait and
count on the Apple Store that's a couple
hours away or the samsung repair center
that's out of my state where I have to
mail my device in and they get it done
fantastic so let's talk a little bit
about the legislative process and we're
all on board we want to do this how do
you actually get passed I saw so Dominic
is saying that he is running for state
representative in Michigan and
right-brainers a major part of his
platform so that's fantastic that's
exactly what we we needed to see yeah
Dominic you're awesome let's talk about
the process of getting a bill passed
into law so this is a bit of a diagram
excuse the poor graphic design I stole
it from the internet so you get you get
you have an idea so I go to a
legislature I let's say Dominic gets
elected and I'm its constituent I go to
him and say we need this right to repair
law he says okay great what would it do
and so that's where we have reference
legislation on the repaired other
website where you can actually give them
legal texts this is this is what we'd
like to see and so what what happened in
California was we we went to
representative Eggman who's from
Stockton and we said we'd like to have
this happen can you help us and
she said sure and so we worked with her
staff got the bill adapted into into the
Californian law context bill has been
introduced and now we're at the point
where we're going to be scheduling
committee hearings so the the California
bill has been referred to two committees
both the the Natural Resources Committee
or the Environment Committee and and and
that's because of the e-waste issue and
then also the judiciary where judiciary
is code for law so the Future II
committee is kind of the all
encompassing a lot of a lot of the bills
that go through the legislature go
through the judiciary committee so we're
gonna have a hearing sometime in the
next month or so in one of those
committees and and that hearing will be
in the State Capitol and you can show up
and write your name us you paper anybody
can show up it's up to the public and
testify so when you went up to
Washington we had a bunch of people come
out and testify also what kind of yes is
the state of Washington not Washington
DC's state of Washington introduced a
bill and and they had a hearing on in
their consumer protection committee and
and so they invited us to come up and
testify we have a whole bunch of local
repair shops show up and testify we had
some recyclers we had some folks who put
computers in to educational contexts and
they were talking about all the benefits
and then the manufacturers showed up and
you had some of these lobbyist
organizations like CompTIA and the
Consumer Electronics Association and the
equipment dealers association they show
up and they they scream and yell about
how how this is going to be terrible for
the world and how the sky will fall if
rates or repair passes so and I know
that they you know talk about protecting
their IP and liability issues you know
they don't they think that these repairs
are too hard for the average year why or
even for you know pros what else I mean
with the liability thing I mean they
kind of hand over liability when they
sell you the device or when you know
John Deere sells you the tractor but I
guess what's the rebuttal to that I mean
aside from you know consumers should be
able to choose how and can you know they
should be able to gauge when repair is
something that's within their skills or
not because just because you can repair
something you doesn't mean you should
get on the skills go seek professional
help if you can but mostly the repairs
can be done on your own like we've get
photos from 10 year olds that you
or submitting photos to us every week
for here we go sorry doing these kinds
of repairs so that's just kind of silly
and I don't know it kind of take that
personally if somebody tells me that you
know I don't know how to you know fixes
me I can't have the skills to swap the
battery out my phone yeah and this is
this is something we hear a lot is they
say that we're it's going to open the
manufactures up to massive liability
their lawyers are very worried
that's the lawyers job it's their job to
be worried but actually we find isn't a
substantial issue I mean we have this
this concept of personal responsibility
yeah and so I realized the u.s. we have
a lot of lawsuits and litigation but the
courts are going to decide based on
personal responsibility if you're
changing the tire in the car and you
drop the car onto yourself that's not
the manufacturers fault that's your
fault for being an idiot yeah we've had
great to repair for cars for a long time
and you think if there's anywhere where
they'd be probably I believe from people
repairing their own it would be he'll be
with cars not with electronics I had in
one of these st. negotiations a
representative from Apple showed up and
he said that same thing he said look
people are gonna hurt themselves if we
enable them to fix their own products
and I said you know the only people I've
seen hurt themselves with an iPhone with
a cracked screen there people are using
it and cutting their finger I need to
get a fix so it's almost more of a
danger using a product that's broken not
not not fixing it or walking you know
how many times we've seen people walking
around with inflated or you know damaged
batteries that are a fire hazard is my
screen put like puffing out he's good I
mean now I think all of last year every
flight I took they said like you cannot
come on board with your Samsung device
you just like take it out of your bag
and leave it because of the fire hazard
it presents right when they're talking
about farmers and modifications that you
know people could be making to those
tractors and they almost make it sound
like we're like stupid up these tractors
to do like the Cal Poly tractor races
are like what people are doing and if
you know modifications if you do you
know change your device or do something
with it that's illegal you can be held
accountable for that but that's not the
reality
unfortunately the legislators are really
used to you know experience our gyun's
they understand they and as long as
they're hearing from constituents as
long as
as the people are regularly talking them
and they're they're totally willing to
listen democracy really does work you
get we got we got so fun I'm walking
past in Congress this was a huge issue
where AT&T one of the largest companies
in in the US with with an incredible
army of lobbyists was saying we don't
want to be able to be able to move their
cellphones from one carrier to the next
and we had people write in we had 114
thousand people signed a petition and
Congress listened to us and they did
something about it and they overruled
the big company so just because it's a
big company with lots of money doesn't
mean that we can't beat them but the
other way that we're going to beat them
is by being organized and persistent and
vocal C I was looking to see what
questions they had coming yeah let's
toggle over let me show you so this is
the Susan tala Montez Eggman is the
representative that's introduced the
bill in the California House now we need
to get the bill introduced in both the
House and the Senate so if you're if
you're I mean in any statement in the
country reach out to your elected
representatives we've put together this
handy form and you can go to California
repaired or you can actually just punch
in any state that you want Minnesota has
a bill and and and you can it'll give
you a little form to fill out and one
thing that I would encourage you you can
fill this out and you can write a letter
you can also punch in your phone number
in your zip code and then we are we set
up a server that will call you and then
dial your represent one of the time so
you don't have to figure out their phone
number you have to figure out who they
are just punching your phone number your
zip code will call you only once and
then connect you through to your
representative so that's a really cool
tool and you can it you know you can
punch that in if you live in New York we
have a live a similar tool in New York
just punch in your zip code and phone
number and we'll connect you right
through and then this is also a form
that you can use for for writing your
legislator so I'll fill this out for me
this is Z I fix it address start writing
and then this is going to my
representatives are Jordan Cunningham
and Bill Monning and I've talked with
both of them about it and I can send
them a letter please customize the
letter the more information that you
give them if you can tell them a
personal story if you can tell them
about why you care about that's great
don't just hit Send leather fill in a
little bit more information
a lot farther and you know we've got you
know numbers on iFixit hundred million
people you know come to the site every
year to fix things and I think that's
one big part of this is showing showing
people that hey this you know my
generation people now are repairing
things this isn't just something that
you know your grandpa talked about from
back in the day you know going on and
talking to your legislators or just
sharing photos saying you know with
hashtag right to repair showing people
that we're actually doing this is a huge
help and one thing I think is amazing
about right to repair is that this is a
bipartisan bill repair and impacts
everybody's lives for all the right
reasons and it's definitely a time I
think for both sides of you know and
people to come together because it is us
against these manufacturers and these
companies right yeah we have we have
Republicans in Nebraska and Kansas
introducing great repair representative
Eggman is a Democrat from California
what this is something that we really
have the ability to bring people from
across the aisle and even
internationally if you're in Sweden
they're Argentina the the democratic
process works very similarly everywhere
and it's very possible for you like find
who your elected representative are if
you're running a business ask them to
come and take a tour of your business
show them around and then and then talk
to them about the problem they're very
very eager to address address the
concerns of citizens and and there's so
many issues that they hear from where
people are just wacko if you can gather
and and that they can't do anything
about so if you come to them with
something is reasonable that's actual
where they actually can can do something
that's going to improve improve citizens
in their in their district they're going
to be really excited and I see people
asking about links in the description of
the video we've got all the links that
Kyle's shown you here so links how to
reach out your state legislators and
everything are right there in the
description but Matt what were you gonna
say I just say one of the surprising
things about the the right to repair
movement has been the groundswell of
grassroots you know right to do rights
the repair die org board is limited in
size and limited in capacity because the
country is so big and what we want to do
is so massive but you see in states like
Washington and then and others places
well like some of these bills are being
introduced just by community activism
that's not really in a major coordinated
effort by the repair Association it's
just concerned citizen speaking out so
in a state like Arizona where there is
no right to repair bill right now you
can still go to Arizona dye repair org
and you can write to your legislator and
help get something introduced as well as
going ahead and scheduling those
one-on-one meetings with your
representative and saying hey this is
really important to me we should
introduce something and it happens
people introduce bills just like I said
like crazy it just pops up out of
nowhere oh there's a bill being
introduced today that's we need to be on
top right and even if your state hasn't
isn't one of the 18 so far reach out to
legislature anyway it's not too late to
get bills introduced they can drop in as
a placeholder you got to get the
conversation started one thing that we
have found is that legislators tend to
be older and and they don't have as much
technology expertise and so there's a
fair amount of training and educating
about why this is a challenge like why
is right to repair matter now where it
didn't before and as electronics have
moved into more and more products it's
given manufacturers more tools to lock
consumers out and you've had weird if
you worked with state legislative
actually do repairs I wish more people
could just get hands-on with this stuff
because people's technical identity
makes them scared of these types of
repairs and so people that you know
don't have experience and them are
probably more likely to be like oh no
this bill or this isn't you know is it
premier it doesn't matter to me but
really right to repair does matter to
you even if you're not a fixer because
it impacts a private repair industry in
the people that you would be going to to
get these right yeah Matt and I have got
the conference's for these state
legislators and we and we fix phones
with them and talk about your experience
yeah I mean we you know is conference
where are you just dealing with these
legislators day-in day-out for you know
two or three days straight and all we're
doing is just hey let's take a look at
your phone maybe we can help you out
with something and they either have a
phone that's a couple years old the
battery doesn't last as long or they've
got that crack stream they've been
suffering through for the last couple of
months and they're thinking about
getting it fixed so we do that for them
and they are blown away at simple the
process is how quick it can be how
professional the experience is and and
that's really a good takeaway for them
that this wasn't something foreign it
was actually something very real that
goes on daily in their you know in their
district wherever that may be which was
a point that you
when I was with Robert Miranda Nebraska
has the right to repair hearing last
year we talked a lot about how this was
local jobs that you know they needed to
be aware of these weren't just you know
we weren't sending jobs for the repair
out of state or out of country these
were jobs in their districts that they
would be supporting by enacting this
legislation right and there's there's a
I mean I think the time is now people
are really frustrated about apples
business with the batteries for they're
slowing phones down intentionally that
the lines of Apple stores are are
completely unreasonable
I mean Apple does not have retail
employees you can do all the service
that they need yeah I mean yeah well we
should we should play a game what would
you prefer to go to I avoid the apples
are like the plague and I know I know
people have been going into you know
think that they're eligible because they
may be you know took their phone into
the bathroom with them while they're
showering that you know the indicator
light from water you know water damage
goes off and they didn't you know
weren't having any issues with their
phone and I will just kind of throws
their hands up and doesn't want to help
them out or if you've a third party
screen but in the original battery they
don't want to help you out so there's a
lot of situations they are frustratingly
misleading with their their policies too
right so like we understand that they're
not allowed to deny you warranty service
on your battery because you add an
aftermarket screen put on you know you
had a screen repair done in the
independent shop yet their policies make
that very very unclear right they say
that this is our policy we don't allow
that except where consumer protection
laws may and then you have to go and
hunt down that law which refers to
another law it's not very clear-cut at
all and I think one of the things that
the beauty of this legislation is that
it's very simple it's I think how many
pages files like one page two pages long
two pages max yeah it's a very simple
thing for everybody whether you're a
legislator or a repair shop owner or a
consumer that might benefit from this
very simple to read and understand and
get bomb right but the key is this isn't
going to happen unless citizens get
engaged it's easy to watch and be a
lurker on the internet but this isn't
going this is not something that's going
to happen if you
our passive like you mentioned it's now
an issue for every single iPhone user
that you know is due for a battery of
plus people are now more aware of how
it's impacting them directly and so when
you're doing outreach you know within
your own community and trying to get
people motivated for this also look to
your makers and tinker's it's not just
the private repair industry or you know
the few people that just you know have
open devices all over their homes like
the avid tinker's and stuff but makers
and anybody that I did you know that
wants to be able to open their
electronics without fear of litigation
it should you know it should be in favor
of this but now it's expanded to even
just the average iPhone user I mean
everybody should know right and this is
something if you want to learn more
about this there's a lot of other
YouTube channels that have been talking
about this issue not just us check out
Louis Rossmann and and Jessica Jones
channel they've talked about and they're
showing in practice the kind of advanced
repairs that you can do if we have
access to this information we've been
fortunate that the the schematics for
most iphones have fallen off a truck
somewhere in China and all the repair
shops have them we don't necessarily
have that level of schematic for other
types of products and so you can imagine
the economic opportunity that would
happen if all of a sudden people would
do more advanced repairs on Samsung
phones or on HTC phones and I think
that's something that's that's really
been underreported about right repairs
the opportunity to create jobs we're
seeing manufacturing jobs go to Asia and
okay maybe maybe that's something that
we can we can try the reverse with with
more terrorists maybe not but what we
can do is create more repair jobs and
the repair jobs are going to be where
the products are at because nobody likes
I mean that's an issue now nobody wants
to send their phone off dappled so you
have that battery replaced you don't
want to send your phone you want your
stuff fixed you know the day of or you
know locally so these jobs would be
staying here currently three percent of
American jobs are in the repair sector
and and so it would be interesting to
see what would happen if we can make
that five or six percent like that would
be a substantial number of jobs are you
talking about three million jobs
currently in the repair sector now we
could add potentially millions more jobs
if we had the ability to repair more
products it's just crazy to think it's
phones it's um you know we're getting a
lot of coverage on phones and tractors
because of batteries and
you know the bird has been covering
Nebraska farmers but it's your you know
refrigerator that has an LCD on it in
your this is you know so many this if
you think about all the appliances that
have may be unnecessary electronics but
electronics in them repair more repair
people are needed for all of those
things right Matt what other products
are we've been talking about cell phones
a lot but what do you think is is the
most interesting kind of market
opportunity that this is going to open
up I mean I think the idea of people
being able to tinker I mean the ability
for people to expand on the design you
know the devices that we get beyond just
smart phone connected watches you know
we're all about the Internet of Things
now so when the nest breaks can we fix
it are we able to get in there as simply
I mean I install the nest actually
yesterday at my house and I was amazed
at how simple it was relatively to to
get it installed and set up it was you
know standard Phillips screw heads and
and it came with a screw driver and they
gave me very clear instruction on how to
do it there is no threat there about
don't touch our property hire
professional to do this or else it was a
very simple clear-cut process so I think
like the more we get into these
connected smart things we and that they
want to be a part of our lives they have
to grapple with reality that you know
we're not always going to be in a
position to hire that expert
professional to come in from out of town
to help me install it I'm going to want
to do it myself and I think the coolest
thing will be seeing a better working
relationship between the manufacturers
and between the consumer where they're
setting them up to be successful on
using their own devices and really
getting a better understanding of how
they work right you don't just want to
turn it on and have it work necessarily
you want to know all of the things you
can customize it to make it your own
when I come home will the lights turn on
will the thermostat go up to the right
temperature so that I'm not freezing
cold in my house whatever it may be
those kinds of unique understandings of
how your things work I think is a lot of
where the passion for me comes in the
right to repair movement is if I buy it
I should own it and I should be able to
tinker with it and get to understand it
in ways that maybe the manufacture
even anticipating right alright so just
a recap with it whether some ways that
people can get engaged so on repaired
org we've got the easy call and email
your state legislators forms and things
on there bunch in your state dot
repaired org North Carolina dot repaired
the other word Texas not repaired out
org California that repaired the other
word definitely in there and then if you
if if they were hearing we're gonna make
find upcoming hearings for today posted
on the repair leg mailing list and then
and then we'll we'll be in touch or the
ethics at mailing list and we'll be
we'll be sending people out we don't
know oftentimes like we found out about
the hearing the hearing in Washington
was on Tuesday we found out Friday yeah
do they let a lot of people into those
or is it I mean it were standing room
only at the Washington hearing but they
didn't turn anybody away so it just
depends on how many people want show up
in Sacramento we can pack the house yeah
the first thing to do is to find out who
are your state legislators what we're
focused state-level right so you know
find who your elected representatives
are all there are some some websites
that you can go to like like here is one
I just searched for how do I find my
legislators and I punch in my address
and that it says here so my state
senators senator Monning and my my rep
in the and House of Representatives is
Jordan Cunningham and so I need to reach
out to both of them neither of my reps
are sponsoring the right to repeal bill
yet but we want them to and so what you
want to do if you have a state that
already has a bill figure out the bill
number and then call and ask them to
sponsor in the case of California it's a
B 21 10 is the bill right now so if you
can give them the the bill number that's
great if they don't already have a bill
in your state like Texas doesn't have a
bill yet ask them to introduce it and
point them to repair the other word for
the for the reference legislation that's
that's the the bare minimum that's how
you can get started and then you know
like if you can you know find an
opportunity if you can find an event
where they're going to be in your
community and then show up and ask them
a question or get to know staff if
you're running a business if you can get
them to come to your business that
really has a huge impact or if there are
local repair events going on when we
our repair cafe locally we invited just
local state alright just local reps
you're mayor you're just well I would a
urge you to create you know get some
people together to create your own
repair cafe and there are you know what
am I thinking the different repair cafes
there's a few movements in the US and if
you just search repair cafe in your area
one might pop up and if not you should
definitely try to get your community get
together to run one of those because
that's another part of this movement is
the grassroots and getting people to
actually you know fix things but then
yeah and vote inviting local reps in to
watch everybody fix it just completely
changes their perspective when they see
Apple fixing things or us oh we aren't
just throwing everything away the other
thing is is we're working on putting
together a leather of California
businesses so I've got a form that's in
the and the further and this is a
sign-up form that the the California
Public Interest Research Group is
putting together and they want we're
trying to build out a list so we can get
like 200 local businesses in California
to sign onto those letters don't sign on
here if you're not in California but
this is something that then we'll be
able to go and deliver we've been
putting together these you know letters
of support
another thing that what you can do is
actually get your city or your local
community organizations to get on board
and send the letter so if you're a
member of a Rotary Club that could get
involved or or we've actually had some
cities in California decided the city
wants to support it and so that they can
have either the City Council passed a
resolution supporting the legislation or
they can send the weather so there's a
lot of different ways to kind of get
creative about like just think about who
do you know who's connected who can do
this kind of thing have your business
red leather have your community
organizations ready to leather this that
the key thing here is is is to be vocal
and does this think about what kinds of
platforms that you have for being vocal
and we mentioned we were talking about
this the other day how hard it is to
actually make there's just so much going
on in the news and so much happening
that but being vocal and really
especially you know through these talks
and on social media talking about this
and
bring it some attention and just need
more voices and more people yeah I says
some folks are talking the questions
about Lewis Rothman Lewis Rothman has
been hugely in favor of rate to repair I
think he's gonna be out in Albany in in
a few days we're doing a doing a
legislative outreach day on on I think
May first up in Albany so I've stayed in
contact with Lewis and we're still very
excited about getting something done
it's just I mean this is a multi-year
process we're a few years into it Lewis
was one of the first on board and we're
really appreciative of all the the
outreach and advocacy that he's done
he's really helped us get a lot farther
in New York than we would be right right
now without them and I think goodnight I
think that what I've noticed too is that
just in the last I think two or three
years that I've been a part of this
movement just the the level of stories
that rack up that support our argument
that just come out over time right like
a year ago we didn't have battery gates
as you know I am you nishan in any type
of hearing right but you know Kyle you
were tweeting on you know on Twitter I
buy a favorite of this because like one
of my favorite things like you said
let's conservatively say there's 250
million iPhones out there or 25% that
need a new battery and it takes a genius
15 minutes you did all the math and it
was like it would take them two and a
half years just to clear out the US
backlog and it was you know insane when
you start to do the math and think of
the scale of the problem and how like we
said the beginning ill-equipped they are
to handle this
it just starts to make a lot more sense
the pieces come together and I think for
legislators that that really starts to
resonate with them and talking about
this like greater kind of waste issue
all these batteries that are going going
to be dumped afterwards and that can't
be recycled right we've got we're gonna
I think the UN estimated this year was
the year were globally we've passed 50
million metric tons of e-waste will be
this year and so I I feel like as a
consumer that the manufacturers kind of
leave it up to us to figure out what
happens to our device at the end of life
but they're the ones you know the kind
of designed the battery to be stuck in
there and this kind of thing so I think
right to repair also holds them
accountable for the end-of-life of
things
right that's one of the side effects the
bill would require they make repair
information available well that would
actually give for the first time ever
recyclers information on how they
disassembled these processes so when you
throw a laptop into the incinerator it
doesn't blow up on you because you know
where the battery is you know how to get
it get it out it's yeah the recyclers
have to remove batteries by hand before
they go into the shredder so this is
something that would be hugely helpful
recyclers have been begging for this
information and manufacturers have so
far refused to provide them with any any
safe information on how to recycle their
products so that's something that I
think would be a really significant
benefit and that's why you have groups
like Californians against waste so
they're hugely in favor of this bill we
also have the post landfill folks and
and Greenpeace and other organizations
that like right to prepare which is this
is strange that we have we've got folks
like the Farm Bureau and the Corn
Growers Association and Greenpeace
agreeing on an issue this well the first
time they've ever get on something it
may be the last time so we should take
advantage or we got yeah any any final
words from you Matt before wrap up no I
I think you know the biggest thing that
is really great to see is just more and
more independent shops taking an
interest in becoming active especially
in their regions I think we can't get to
every state can't get to every hearing
and have every meeting with the
legislators so I think the ground
support grassroots support is the most
essential part of this being successful
I completely agree so we're working
really hard but we can't do this without
all of you share share the links around
with all of your friends and and see if
you get people keep people activated
this is this is something that we can do
I think it's something we need to do but
but it won't happen without without all
of us kind of putting our putting our
shoulder into it yeah show in the world
that we're capable of fixing well not
afraid to fix things capable of fixing
things in that yeah this is we care
about it not only for our personal you
know just device lifetime concerns but
also just as a global waste issue jobs
issue it really touches down in a lot of
different spaces so if you're in another
country and you're wondering how to get
going you want reference legislation
fill out the contact form over on
repaired org and you can get in touch
with us and let us know like where
you're at what you think the legislative
strategy might be
and and we can send over some some
language we've got folks in Europe that
are actively working on this as well
things are ready so much time this is a
blast knows great thanks awesome bye
Matt thanks uh sure yeah thanks Cheers