Legislative sessions are winding down for the summer. Some bills covering electronics and batteries made it across the finish line this year, while others stalled out. Here’s a roundup of what happened.
Extended producer responsibility for batteries passed for the first time in Illinois, while updates to existing laws passed in Vermont and Wisconsin. Vermont’s legislation expanded the type of batteries the program covers to include rechargeable batteries and battery-containing products. The bill in Wisconsin changed how manufacture targets are set, expanded to cover more peripherals and increased registration fees.
Bills updating or introducing EPR for batteries failed in Connecticut, Minnesota and Washington. A bill creating grants for battery recycling education also failed in Wisconsin.
Three more bills that would have changed electronics EPR programs failed in Hawai’i, Maryland and Minnesota.
There were more than 20 right-to-repair electronics bills introduced this year. So far, 11 have failed, eight are still active and three passed.
The bills that passed were in Oregon and Colorado. One of Colorado’s bills asked the Federal Trade Commission to set repairability scores and the other expanded the current right-to-repair law to include consumer devices and business computing. The Oregon bill protects consumers’ right to repair most electronics and appliances. Both Oregon and Colorado included bans on parts pairing.
Right-to-repair electronics bills failed in Alaska, Hawai’i, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Rhode Island and Washington.
Some states with longer legislative sessions still have active right-to-repair bills, including Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and a bill at the federal level.
Bans on putting batteries in landfills failed in Illinois and New Hampshire, as well.
