Ever felt frustrated at the inability to repair broken household items? That toaster that’s only lasted a year of two, or the dining chair with a wobbly leg? This modern day condition has evolved from manufacturers building in ‘planned obsolescence’ in order to sell more products and with the skills to repair items becoming harder to find, we are often forced to send items to landfill rather than get them repaired. Products are also made hard to repair with parts that can’t be easily replaced. This fuels fast consumerism with clothing, furniture and electronics being cheaper and easier to replace than repair.
This has impacts on the environment with landfills filling up, increased carbon emissions and costing consumers more money. While some items are easily recyclable, most are not and will end up in landfill. It also means all the resources that went into making these products are lost forever.
Fundamentally, repairing goods is a crucial part of the circular economy. The right to repair movement covers not only the skills and materials required to repair goods, but also looks at how product manufacturers can ensure their products can be easily repaired.
In 2022 the organisation Repair Cafe Aotearoa delivered a petition to then Environment Minister David Parker calling on him to bring in ‘right to repair’ measures so it’s easier and cheaper for New Zealanders to get items repaired. Since then, there are hundreds of repair cafes being held across Aotearoa.
How can I get involved?
So how can you support the right to repair movement?
Come along to a Repair Cafe!
Sustainable Kaipara and The Mangawhai Shed held our first Repair Cafe last November. The concept being for people to bring in items in need of repair and sit back enjoying a cuppa or coffee while they wait. The primary goal being to keep items from ending up in landfill.
There was a wide variety of items brought in. Clocks, speakers, tools, clothing items, kids toys and chairs were just some of the varied items the skilled volunteers either fixed or gave advice on. In some cases, the repairs required were more in depth and the Mangawhai Shed team could offer their woodworking skills for a fee. The electricians on hand were able to either fix items or give advice on whether it was worth trying to fix them with new parts or not. The sewing ladies were kept busy with patches on t-shirts, jean repairs and reuniting precious dolls with their legs and heads!
Good news – we are running another Repair Cafe!
Our next Repair Cafe is on Saturday 27th April 2024, 9am to 12pm at The Mangawhai Shed, Mangawhai Domain – all details are here.
If you are in another part of the country, other Repair Cafes can be found here https://www.repaircafeaotearoa.co.nz/local-repair-cafes
