Sadly last year we could not start our Repair Cafe in Taunton because of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Hopefully as more and more people are vaccinated and restrictions are relaxed we may be able to launch later this year. In the meantime, until we can start planning, I thought I would look at the latest news on the repairing world.
Recently The BBC have been running a radio series on ‘People Fixing the World’; this one was particularly relevant – People fixing the world: The secret to making your stuff last longer –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszv2k .
It’s focus was on the repair movement going on in Sweden where back 2016 the Swedish government, in order to curb emissions due to consumption, brought in tax breaks on repairs to anything from bicycles to washing machines (see the excellent article in the Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/19/waste-not-want-not-sweden-tax-breaks-repairs). White goods repairs have increased steadily since they were included in the scheme (known as ROT) in 2017, and jumped by 16% in 2020.Swedish company Electrolux also are encouraging people to fix their own appliances with increased online and telephone support. Plus it is trialling a flat fee to repair appliances in Sweden and Denmark. This is obviously going to hit the bottom line for the company but they hope that they can benefit in the long run by building loyalty and trust.
From the 1st March a new European Union regulation comes into force promoting repair. For example manufacturers will have to make spare parts and repair information available for a minimum time period. Martine Postma of the Repair Cafe International sees this directive as being a first step that will allow only professional repairers to benefit from. “Repair Cafe volunteers and ordinary consumers are not included. We believe that everyone should have the right to repair.” Now that the UK is out of the EU this may be a chance to bring in ‘Right to Repair’ regulations that include repair cafe volunteers and ordinary consumers as championed by the Restart Project – https://therestartproject.org/news/commons-right-to-repair/ .
The United States are in turn going through a state by state discussion on the ‘Right to Repair’ from farmers being able to fix their tractors to electronics repairers railing against the barriers to fixing PCs, laptops and mobile phones.
As we come out of the pandemic more and more repair cafes will be opening up to turn broken items into working PCs, vacuum cleaners and such and unwearable items into cherished clothing that can see years of use. For example Ilminster Green Group aim to start a repair cafe in April – see
News 11/03/2021 :
The government will be bringing in a right to repair law in the summer – see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56340077 .
This is great news for reducing the amount of waste being produced by our electrical appliances and gadgets. Manufacturers will be legally obliged to make spare parts for products available to consumers for the first time – a new legal right for repairs. It is still unclear whether Repair Cafe volunteers and budding amateurs will be able to buy spare parts and ‘allowed’ to repair their own devices or whether recognised repairers will only be able to.
In the meantime checkout the Taunton Repair Cafe facebook page – plans are afoot to arrange a repair cafe in the late summer barring any major changes to the restrictions being lifted.
Taunton Transition Town 