NPR

Fixit culture is on the rise, but repair legislation faces resistance

U.S. consumers are showing an increased interest in prolonging the life of the things they own, rather than throwing them out. But some products are easier to fix than others.
Adam Savage, host of <em>Tested, </em>and right to repair advocate, shows off the lathe he's fixing at his San Francisco workshop.

Americans are responsible for throwing out more stuff than any other nation in the world. According to the Public Interest Research Group, people in this country generate more than 12% of the planet's trash, though we represent only 4% of the global population.

"We keep going at this pace and we'll reach the heat death of the earth in a few hundred years," said Adam Savage, the leader and host of Tested, a popular YouTube channel and website aimed at makers, and an outspoken advocate for repairing the things we own rather than trashing them. "So time is of the essence."

Throwing things away comes with an environmental cost. Manufacturing processes and

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