Spend Earth Day weekend getting that button sewed back on your favourite sweater, fixing your old radio, getting a new clasp for your mother’s necklace, and keeping waste out of the landfill.
On Saturday (April 20), Repair Café Peterborough will be held on the lower level of Peterborough Square between 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Visitors can drop in and get items repaired by volunteers spread across various stations including sewing and mending, electronics, and wood and glue.
“It can encompass so many things,” says Caitlin Smith, one of the volunteer organizers of Repair Café Peterborough. “Whatever you have, we’ll look and see if we can fix it.”
The concept of a free gathering place for repairs and fixes was initiated by environmentalist Martine Postma which she hosted the first Repair Café in Amsterdam in 2009. Since then, there have been more than 2,500 local Repair Café volunteer organizations formed and held worldwide.
Peterborough’s Repair Café was first formed in 2014. Smith explains that while the group has certainly had volunteers participating since the beginning, others have only in recent years begun to lend their skills as the public becomes more and more aware of human impact on the environment.
“In general, that whole idea of planned obsolescence, fixing what we have, and doing our part to keep things out of the landfill is just becoming more and more of something on the general public’s radar,” she says. “I see on social media folks bringing awareness to the impact of the way we live our lives is affecting our environment.”
Smith notes that it’s encouraging because not only are people raising awareness and talking about it more, but they are also taking action in the ways they can.
“People are not happy with what corporations are doing and are doing what they can themselves, whether it’s just fixing an item at Repair Café or shopping second-hand or doing what they can to change the way they’re living,” she says. “It’s definitely a change in mentality that is slow coming, but we’re seeing a lot more of people doing these great initiatives and altogether doing what we can because we have to change our lives.”
One of the main goals behind Repair Café is to remind people they can fix something they currently own rather than throwing it out and immediately purchasing an all-new product. As the founder and operator of organizing service ReCreate Space, Smith knows first-hand how people fall into the habit of buying new instead of making the small repairs that previous generations would have done.
“In the world we live in right now, people are just so busy and rather than taking the time to set a thing aside and wait for a Repair Café, they’re more likely to just toss it in the garbage and not even think about trying to recycle it properly,” says Smith. “There’s also the fact that things are designed to not last, which is something that, as consumers, we’re faced with all the time. You really have to do your research and buy something that’s a bit more expensive and is better made (rather) than just going to Amazon.”
While some people are forced by income barriers and rising living costs to purchase built-not-to-last products which can be more affordable, a solution is instead to look to services like Repair Café — even if at first it seems like a lost cause.
“At the last event, we had a woman bring in her mom’s mixer and it was probably older than I am, but the fixer was able to get it working,” says Smith. “That was so incredible to see, as often with newer items, their design makes it so that you can’t even open it to access the inner workings to even try to fix it.”
While Repair Café Peterborough is meant to offer solutions, the goal is not to replace local small businesses who are able to do the repairs.
If, for example, someone comes in for a small zipper fix, the volunteers will assist, but if the zipper must be entirely replaced, they will offer resources and contacts for local businesses that can do the work.
“What we try to do is not take away from repair businesses but fill the gaps when there’s not anybody that will fix something,” Smith explains. “There are a few great people working out of their homes, so we will recommend that the person take their item to one of those businesses. We want to support them because we want to have more repair businesses.”
Beyond simply getting the repair done, visitors have ample opportunity to learn more from the volunteers about how they can fix or repair their items in the future.
“The volunteers will walk the person through the item repair and what they’re doing,” Smith says. “The fixers will try to get the person to do the hands-on work whenever possible and maybe they’ll pick up some knowledge along the way.”
As a volunteer and sewer herself, Smith notes that it’s a win-win for all involved — with the visitor saving money while getting their favourite items working again, waste being reduced, and the fixer getting the satisfaction of having solved a problem.
“Our fixers just love it,” she says. “For electrical fixers, they may not know what the problem is, so they figure it out. And when they actually fix that problem, they’re totally accomplished and elated.”
Held on the third Saturday of every month (except on long weekends), Repair Café Peterborough is always looking for volunteers. Volunteers need not be repair experts as extra hands for set-up and welcome tables are also required.
Visit Repair Café Peterborough on Facebook at www.facebook.com/repaircafeptbo for more information or to register as a volunteer, or email repaircafeptbo@gmail.com.
