It’s a Wednesday evening in a town hall in Penryn in Cornwall, and my friend Pete and I are volunteering at our local repair cafe. We set up tables, get our tools ready, put up a sign outside and wait for people to arrive.

By the time we pack up three hours later, along with two other volunteers we have helped repair three vacuum cleaners, a pair of jeans, a laptop, a desk lamp, a clock and an electric skateboard, as well as replacing many buttons, zips, fuses, and bulbs. Some products have returned home with their owners, either to come back next time to fit a part we’ve ordered, or sadly because their design means we can’t repair them.

Repair cafes are often busy in the weeks post-Christmas when people discover their gifts are either broken or damaged in the post and they want to save them. One report found nearly half of toys received at Christmas will be broken and end up in landfill by spring.

The repair cafe movement tries to reduce the effect of this on the environment by encouraging citizens to repair rather than replace items. We regularly repair coffee machines, headphones, torches and fit new screens for computers.

The Repair........

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