Hundreds of broken toys get thrown away after Christmas. Zamrznuti tonovi/ShutterstockIt’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 Cafe International Foundation currently identifies 3,823 cafes globally, including 446 in the UK and 550 in Germany, and a total of 2,500 across the EU.
The “right to repair law”, officially the European Directive on Repair, was passed in April 2024, and is helping to drive the movement to repair more everyday items across Europe, by forcing manufacturers to do more to help consumers to get items repaired. A recent study found that around 35 million tonnes of goods were discarded across Europe, when they could have been repaired.
The value of the movement is in showing people they don’t need to replace products, and helping them learn how to fix themselves. Even if a volunteer ultimately does the fixing, sitting opposite someone as they realise their Christmas gift is no longer broken is a really positive experience. It can get quite emotional.
Stuart Walker (in white shirt) helping people repair items in Falmouth, Cornwall.
Falmouth and Penryn Repair Cafe
We always start with the simplest repair: cleaning. Often a proper clean either fixes a problem or reveals the cause. Then perhaps we’ll teach someone how to successfully glue parts back together using clamps to hold things in place, or to use a cotton bud to clean up after leaking batteries.
With complex products or electronics, I teach people to methodically work through the product, removing parts and testing with our tools as they go, until we can identify exactly which part isn’t working and why, making what seemed an overwhelming problem into a simple repair. We can then either fix, replace or remove any broken parts.
Recently I helped someone find the cause of their broken drill (a small wire disconnected from a light on the top). I showed them how to solder, and after a few practice runs on some spare parts they reattached the wire and repaired the tool. As they put it, “fixed drills and brand new skills”.
Repairs takes time. If you try to do it quickly, the repairer just ends up doing it all. That is less rewarding for most people. It makes the owner feel like they have to pay, changes the dynamic, and doesn’t teach anyone anything.
I’ve had lovely experiences repairing heirlooms and jewellery for elderly ladies, and toys for kids. Volunteer repairers don’t charge for their time, so a repair is either free or done for a small donation.
What we repair
Vacuum cleaners are one of the most common items brought in, and consistently in the top three items reported by 80 of the UK’s 446 repair cafes. Repairing a machine can delay the emission of the 70kg CO₂ related to the materials and manufacture of a new one.
Fixing things can be expensive if you take objects into commercial repairers. A 2021 study in Norway found the “consistently low price of new products” to be the most common barrier to commercial repair. If things are cheap, it can feel easier to just buy something new, and we don’t always think about the waste we are creating.
Repairs save people money, and by slowing the constant influx of new purchases it reduces global emissions as well, and we hope, over time, we are helping the wider public learn some of these forgotten skills too.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 47,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.
Stuart Walker works for the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures. He is affiliated with Hope Valley Climate Action and the Repair Cafe Movement.