More than 10 states have introduced right-to-repair legislation so far this year, and advocates say new and more nuanced bills could help spur progress in 2025.

Right-to-repair began gaining a foothold a few years ago, when key consumer electronics laws passed in California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York and Oregon. Such laws have a range of requirements, but most call for original equipment manufacturers to make parts and repair instructions available to the general public. This year, bills covering consumer electronics, cars, wheelchairs and other electronics are moving through state legislatures.

“A lot more is coming,” said Kyle Wiens, co-founder of iFixit, which advocates for right-to-repair laws and provides tools and resources for repairing electronics. 

Right-to-repair has also been an important issue for recyclers who see it as a tactic for diverting e-scrap from disposal and bringing in new business for e-scrap recyclers and refurbishers. Such diversion could also reduce fires caused by lithium-ion batteries in the waste stream, a key safety concern for the industry.

“When our broken — or merely older — electronics become garbage, they flood our landfills and roadsides with hazardous and non-renewable components,” said Pennsylvania state Rep. Kristine Howard in a statement. Howard has supported numerous right-to-repair bills in Pennsylvania in recent years.

In the past, major companies like Apple, as well as the Biden administration, Federal Trade Commission and numerous state attorneys general also voiced support for such bills. Yet some electronics trade groups have said right-to-repair laws could create digital security issues as well as safety concerns for people who don’t know how to properly repair their equipment. 

Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association, said she’s tracking 25 states “where we believe bills will be, or have been filed.” Not every state legislature that indicates it will file a bill actually does so, so the playing field is still murky in some areas, she said.

Advocates generally are focusing on state-level right-to-repair actions. At the federal level, “it’s too soon to tell on anything,” Gordon-Byrne said. This year, bills are trending “strongly” toward general consumer electronics, and bill sponsors could also introduce more legislation for powered wheelchairs and agricultural equipment, she said. 

Some states, such as Rhode Island, have numerous active bills covering various repair aspects, “so we’ve been busy there,” she said. Meanwhile, Hawai’i filed a bill that would give consumers and repair shops wider access to diagnostic repair tools usually available only to dealers. In Maine, voters in 2023 approved a right-to-repair law for automobiles, and more detailed legislation related to implementing that law could come soon.

A new entry to the right-to-repair arena is New Mexico, which introduced a bill for the first time this year. “That makes it the 49th state to work on right-to-repair,” Wiens said.

Some bills this year will also continue to address the issue of parts pairing, a practice of using software that prevents technicians from fully installing spare parts, particularly parts that aren’t officially approved by OEMs. Oregon, which enacted its new right-to-repair policy for consumer electronics on Jan. 1, prohibits manufacturers from using parts pairing. 

Another trend is bills calling for a “repairability index” that requires OEMs to rate how repairable their products are. Oregon, Pennsylvania and New York introduced similar bills this year. Rep. Howard says these indexes would help consumers make informed purchasing choices in an era where critical minerals and computer chips are in short supply or harder to source. 

Here are some highlights from the growing right-to-repair bill list. Which bills or states are you tracking? Email us at waste.dive.editors@industrydive.com.

• Connecticut: HB 6053 has few details so far, but it calls for providing “consumers and independent repair providers with the ability to repair consumer electronics.”
• Hawai’i: SB 795 calls for owners of motor vehicles and independent repair facilities to have access to diagnostic information and repair tools otherwise made available only to auto dealers.
• Illinois: SB 122 aims to cover certain electronics and appliances for three to seven years after the product was last manufactured, depending on the product’s dollar value.
• Missouri: HB 582 calls for right-to-repair for an undefined range of “consumer products,” not including motor vehicles. 
• New Mexico: SB 69 would cover cell phones sold in the state after July 1, 2021, and all other consumer electronic equipment sold in the state after July 1, 2015. It would ban parts pairing for devices sold after Jan. 1, 2026.
• New York: AB 3058 would require retail sellers to create a “repair score” of one to 10 for certain “digital equipment.” 
• Oregon: SJM 8 calls for the Federal Trade Commission and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to create an electronics repair score system that OEMs could voluntarily adopt. 
• Pennsylvania: HB 386 would call for developing a repairability index for certain electronics and would require OEMs to display it on product packaging. 
• Rhode Island: SB 60 would cover some digital electronic equipment and parts sold in the state starting Jan. 1, 2026. 
• Virginia: HB 2483 would cover certain electronics sold after Jan. 1, 2026. It would also require OEMs to make tools and methods available for accessing electronic security locks.
• Washington: HB 1483 would apply to certain electronics sold after July 1, 2021. The bill calls for banning parts pairing for certain electronics sold after Jan. 1, 2025.