Futures Forum: Sidmouth Repair Café's first session > bring along your broken stuff on Saturday 29th September to be fixed!
With some great reaction so far on the group's Facebook pages:
Sidmouth Repair Cafe - Home | Facebook
There are some wonderful projects happening all over the country...
For example:
Toys saved from scrapheap at Coventry repair cafe - BBC News
Repair Café one of the attractions for town's Green Week | Basingstoke Gazette
Southampton repair cafe to double in size | Daily Echo
Repair, Reuse and Recycle workshop in Colchester: the circular economy in Essex | Suffolk and Essex Business News - East Anglian Daily Times
The repair cafe restoring Belfast's community spirit - BBC News
And in these parts too:
Unusual guests for Repair Cafe | Latest Exmouth News - Exmouth Journal
Here's a nice overview of the idea from Cheltenham:
WHAT IS A REPAIR CAFE? – SUSTAINABLE SKILLS
Free, Making & DIY, Sustainability, Thrifty
April 26, 2016
A repair cafe is a free meeting place, where people can bring along broken possessions to be fixed by a group of local volunteers. The volunteers have experience in repairing all kinds of items from furniture, clothes and bikes to electrical goods.
Learning how to repair brings communities together
Repair cafes encourage communities to reduce waste and save money by maintaining and repairing, rather than throwing stuff away and buying new.
Many repair cafe initiatives also encourage visitors to work side-by-side with the volunteers to learn how to repair their own possessions. The idea being that the visitor can fix it themselves next time and teach others to do the same, passing on the knowledge and the learning of basic repair jobs.
Repair cafes have lots of useful tools and materials provided and, as well as encouraging a sustainable and thrifty perspective, it is a great way for communities to get together, over a cuppa, and strengthen bonds.
Why repair?
Lots of items are thrown away needlessly every day, these items are often easily repaired. Sometimes people don’t realise that the item could be repaired, or it may be that the knowledge of how to repair the item has been lost.
Save money – repair rather than replace
Learning how to repair an item yourself is not only a great way to save money and help the environment, but you also gain a real sense of achievement and self-esteem, as you apply a newly learned practical skill to fix your item.
When things are used for longer and are not thrown away, it reduces the amount of raw materials and resources needed to make new items. For example, harmful CO2 emissions are reduced and the energy that it would take to create, transport and sell a new product is saved.
As well as resident repair experts, lots of repair cafes also have books and leaflets available, which detail DIY repairs and tips.
What is a Repair Cafe? - Sustainable skills - Thrifty Sustainability
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