Elizabeth Chamberlain and Kyle Wiens of iFixit
Kyle, CEO of iFixit, has been traveling to developing countries, investigating what happens to our hardware after we dispose of it and getting to know people who repair that hardware, with simple tools and self-taught engineering know-how. Visiting the slums of Kibera, the electronics scrapyards of Delhi, and Cairo's infamous Garbage City, Kyle has been filming a documentary about these "fixers," brilliant repair experts in unlikely places. Kyle has written about his travels for a number of publications, including Wired and The Atlantic, and continues to write about repair, e-waste, and people who love to fix it themselves.
Elizabeth's interest in e-waste was sparked when, as a teenager, she learned about how groundwater can become contaminated with mercury and other poisons when people throw used electronics in the trash. In response, she founded a school club dedicated to encouraging companies and individuals to dispose properly of hazardous household waste, such as televisions, fluorescent light bulbs, and batteries. Having received an MA in English from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Elizabeth now writes for iFixit about repair, e-waste, and people who love to fix it themselves.
Latest Stories from Elizabeth Chamberlain and Kyle Wiens of iFixit
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How (and why) to fix your fast fashion fixation
Fashion is a dirty industry. Is the damage worth it?
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Happy Earth Day! Don't Recycle.
When it comes to electronics, recycling should be the final resort.
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Why unlocking cell phones is a green issue
January 26, it became illegal to unlock your cell phone. This week, the White House spoke out in response. Unlocking phones is environmentally friendly.
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At Free Geek, Computer Repair Paves the Path to Jobs
Free Geek is a non-profit reuse organization. Its mission: provide access to computers, the internet, education, and job skills to the local community.
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2012: The Year of the Fixer
We dub 2012 “the year of the fixer”: More and more people are breaking out their screwdrivers, and the headlines have been full of repair stories. Here are a few we missed.
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New Documentary Shows Scale of the E-Waste Problem
Terra Blight, a recently released independent documentary film, gives the e-waste problem a human face and unravels some of its complexities.
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Repair Still Rules in India. Can America Bring It Back?
Wisconsin engineering professor David Kraemer describes repair culture in India, where he taught for a semester. Is there hope for a more repairable future?
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iPhone 5: An Evolution in Repair
When we started our teardown of the iPhone 5 last Wednesday, we expected it to follow the trend of devices being less durable and less repairable. But Apple surprised us. The iPhone 5 is easy to open and to repair.
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How One Teacher Built a Computer Lab for Free
The problem? An underfunded school needed computers for the classroom. Budget? $0. Staff involved? Just one: Robert Litt, a sixth-grade teacher.
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New Design for Product Lifetime Infographic: Finally, An Infographic We're Proud to Endorse
Makeshift Magazine and Autodesk have developed a great "Design for Product Lifetime" infographic—it's a repairable design how-to guide.
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Far More Gold Is in E-Waste than in Gold Ore
Electronic waste contains 40-50 times the amount of gold in ore mined from the ground, according to a report last week by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative and the United Nations University.
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Repair Smarter: Confessions of a Former Screw Stripper
Screws seem so obvious, don't they? Stick the driver in the hole, twist and shout. But I've recently discovered that I've been screwing stuff in wrong my whole life. Maybe you can learn from (or laugh at) my mistakes.
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Game On: How to Fix 3 Common Game Console Problems
If you play video games, you probably know the feeling: the disc jams, the friendly green lights turn red, the screen goes suddenly and disconcertingly dark.
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Repair Is Green: Two Simple iPhone Repairs You Can Do at Home
Not ready to upgrade from your iPhone 4? Here are a couple of simple, inexpensive repairs you can perform at home to get your phone back up to snuff.
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On Having The Right Tools for Repair Jobs
Trevor Bugera fixed two iPods this week—his wife's Mini and her friend's Nano.
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Building a Laptop, Frankenstein Style
When Juan Ordonez's daughter started clamoring for a computer, he decided to take two broken iBooks and combine them into one working computer.
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Don't You Know that Grandma's the Fix-It Girl?
Most people don't get into computer repair by driving a school bus, but Jodi Spangler is definitely not most people.
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See Inside a Canadian E-Waste Recycling Facility
Servers were the size of refrigerators and a single CPU chip had about $300 of gold when FCM Recycling started harvesting precious metals from computers.
