What Are #RepairCafes & How They Can Protect The Planet

January 26, 2022

"We live in a throwaway society, one which creates vast amounts of waste while using up valuable resources for mass manufacturing. This can lead many to start reducing their waste on an individual level, in particular moving away from #plastic, but did you know there are also vital community-run initiatives that can make a huge difference to our global waste problem?

"Alongside #LibrariesOfThings, which reduce consumption, there are also repair cafes, which help items last longer. Here’s why they’re vital to a sustainable future.

"What is a Repair Cafe?

"Repair cafes are free meeting places where people come together to fix things. Unofficial community repair groups have likely been around for a long time, but the model as we now know it was created by #MartinePostma. Postma organised the very first repair cafe in Amsterdam in October 2009, which was a resounding success. She then founded the Repair Cafe Foundation in 2011, a non-profit providing professional support to local groups wanting to start repair cafes. There are now over 2000 repair cafes in over 35 countries around the world.

"In a repair cafe you can usually find tools and materials needed to fix items such as electrics, clothes, bikes, furniture, and more. You can also find expert volunteers, with repair skills in different areas, to help you. Most repair cafes also teach essential mending skills such as sewing buttons, fixing zips, and wiring plugs, helping people learn something by watching and working with volunteers.

"Repair cafes focus on making things last, saving people money and helping the environment by reducing consumption, manufacture, and use of raw materials."

Read more:
ethicalunicorn.com/2022/01/26/…

#SolarPunkSunday #RightToRepairMovement
#HackerSpace #Repair #CircularEconomy #RightToRepair #ReduceReuseRepair