Sixth grade fixer helps pass Right to Repair

Passionate about repair, Nuri joined with PIRG and others to pass a state Right to Repair bill in his home state of Colorado.

Hands repairing using a soldering iron
Nuri Broestl | Used by permission
Nuri Broestl, a 12-year-old fixer from Colorado, soldering.

A fair number of 12-year-olds come to free community repair events such as Boulder’s U-Fix-It Clinic. But sixth grader Nuri Broestl isn’t just there to get something fixed, he’s one of the fixers.

Nuri is already a curious learner. In addition to guitar lessons after school, he has taken to tinkering with the broken amplifiers at his music school – a task that has led him to fix three different guitar amps already.

Passionate about repair, Nuri joined with PIRG and others to pass a state Right to Repair bill in his home state of Colorado. Right to Repair legislation ensures that consumers and local repair businesses can get the parts, tools and service information that they need to fix our phones, IT equipment, appliances and guitar amps.

During his testimony in front of the state Senate Committee on Business, Labor, and Technology, Nuri informed senators that he is currently unable to fix his guitar amp since the manufacturer has not made a service manual public. 

“Service manuals and schematics would help me understand how the amplifier works, diagnose the problem, and fix this guitar amp,” Nuri explained.

Repair saves money and reduces the frequency of junking broken devices. But we don’t repair as much as we should, because manufacturers often refuse to share materials such as service manuals that enable us to safely and properly fix our stuff. In doing so, they set up barriers for the next generation of tinkerers, problem solvers and engineers. 

Thankfully, lawmakers heeded Nuri’s call for change and passed new legislation which requires companies to share the materials he needs to keep fixing things. 

Topics
Authors

Will Sherwood

Campaign for the Right to Repair, Associate, PIRG

Will is an advocate and researcher for the national Right to Repair campaign and provides support for PIRG’s New Economy campaigns. Will lives just outside of Boston where he gardens, reads and is often found experimenting with wild new recipes in the kitchen.

staff | TPIN

This Giving Tuesday, be part of the solution

Grassroots support powers the consumer advocacy and action that win solutions to plastic waste, toxic contamination of our food and water, and so much more. That’s what supporting PIRG is all about. We work for you. You make the difference.

Donate