Mastodawn

DoomsdaysCW Jan 12, 2025

The ‘#RepairCafé’ movement has become a powerful force for a #FixIt culture

By Anne Pinto-Rodrigues, Jan. 07, 2025

"It was 15 years ago when Dutch #environmental journalist #MartinePostma was finally moved to action over all the appliances she saw being thrown away in her Amsterdam neighborhood.

"Despite being reparable, malfunctioning coffee machines, electric kettles, irons, and the like were ending up in landfills. And all the while, manufacturers made more and sold cheap, contributing to carbon dioxide emissions and exacerbating climate change, to Ms. Postma’s frustration. 'At that time, repair was not seen as something normal,' Ms. Postma says. 'You couldn’t do it anywhere.'

"So on Oct. 18, 2009, she arranged a local event where volunteers skilled in repairs would try to fix broken devices that community members brought in, free of cost. She had no idea if anyone would show up.

"Today’s throwaway culture is being challenged by a growing movement to try to fix rather than replace household appliances. The effort has even led to repair-friendly laws in many countries.

"But as soon as the doors of the venue opened, people began streaming in with their defective items. In addition to all the repairs, the event created an opportunity for people of different social and economic backgrounds to come together and bond. 'The huge interest really surprised me,' Ms. Postma says. 'It showed that people want to do the right thing but have to be enabled to do so.'

"Her first “Repair Café” turned out to be a resounding success.

"Today, the Repair Café movement has spread to more than 40 countries across six continents, with nearly 3,200 Repair Cafés in operation, including 200-plus community repair programs in the United States. Moreover, the Repair Café Foundation, which Ms. Postma set up in 2010, has helped foster legislative changes to make repairing more accessible in Europe.

"'The Repair Café Foundation has not only stuck around, but coalesced into a political force in the Western world that has driven the adoption of repair-friendly consumer laws,' says Adam Minter, a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and the author of two books on waste, recycling, and reuse.'"

The ‘Repair Café’ movement has become a powerful force for a fix-it culture

The “Repair Café” movement has spread to more than 40 countries across six continents, with nearly 3,200 Repair Cafés in operation.

The Christian Science Monitor