A volunteer repairs a shirt at the Earth Day event
One of the booths at last week’s Earth Day event was staffed by volunteers from the Peterborough Repair Café.
This service usually operates once a month at Dreams of Beans café in Peterborough and occasionally hosts pop-up clinics such as the one at the CMCC. These clinics are free meeting spaces where volunteers with repair skills offer a wide range of mending skills to help repair everyday household items such as clothing, small appliances, furniture, jewelry, bicycles and toys. The first one was founded in Amsterdam in 2007 by Martine Postma who was looking to support local sustainability efforts. It seems the art of repairing stuff is being lost, with many items needing small repairs being abandoned to the trash bin. It is now a world-wide movement with more than 2,500 groups worldwide.
The objective is to share knowledge, build skills and fix stuff, diverting items that can still be useful from landfills. Volunteers are equipped with tools, materials and skills, and ideally provide repair services alongside the item owner who leaves with a repaired item and knowledge to potentially make their own repairs in the future. They also help people to look at their possessions in a new light, and appreciate their value. The skilled volunteers can sew, fix small appliances, repair electronics and perform other general repairs on items that can still be used. The services are free. They are not miracle workers, and occasionally refer owners to professional support or admit that the item is beyond redemption.
If you have something you might consider fixing, the organization’s website offers tips and guidebooks with instructions for some of the more common repairs for furniture, toys, coffee makers and even laptops. To learn more, visit www.repaircafe.org.