Question: What’s free, helps the environment, helps you to
meet people and make new friends, skills you up, let’s you have interesting
philosophical chats (or is that just me?), drink tea and eat biscuits, and
saves you money?
Answer: The Repair Café.
I can’t remember when I first
heard of the Repair Café phenomenon sweeping the globe, but I do remember the first time I went to one. It was held at the
St Paul’s Learning Centre one Saturday morning in November, and I went along
clutching a non-functioning blender and low expectations. I remember
approaching the group of friendly volunteers, busily unscrewing things with
screwdrivers, sewing things up and generally being industrious and convivial. I
was encouraged to take my blender apart and given advice on what to look for,
and then shown that my blender had worked all along, and it was just an
attachment that was at fault. I remember my sense of wonderment. After all,
this was happening in my ‘hood, for free, no charge, gratis, and with free tea,
and plenty of smiles. Awesome. It seems that there IS such a thing as a free
lunch, or at least, a free fix of a household appliance otherwise destined for
landfill from a person who is just doing it for the love of it. It’s striking
that in our modern society where everything has a price tag, that this is such
an alien concept.
So when they told me that there was another one opening up
in my local library, about 1 minute’s walk from where I live in Easton, I went
along. More fixing successes followed; a vacuum cleaner unblocked and a zip
replaced on a favourite dress. And because things happen organically in a
totally cooperative organisation with no hierarchy and no constituted structure
and absolutely no profit involved, I ended up being a co-host for my local
café. Although I have no particular fixing expertise beyond sewing on the odd
button, I am good at talking to people and organising and things, so I just let
the very capable volunteer fixers do their own thing and hope to absorb some of
their skills and knowhow by osmosis. I am woefully underskilled in practical
matters, and the repairs café gives me a great opportunity to take things to
bits (fun) and put them back together again (satisfying). I also learn about
how things are made, what bits can be replaced, what can’t, and what to buy in
future so that I don’t end up with an item that’s likely to go wrong, and end
up in landfill within a year or two. And like so many others who end up
volunteering at the Repair Café, I have a newfound confidence about my ability
to solve simple household or gadgetry issues. Confidence – you can’t put a
price on that!
There’s nothing quite like the buzz of a successful café,
with lots of happy people taking their mended possessions home with them, or
with tips and knowledge on how to fix their item, even if it hasn’t been
successful on the day. I have really enjoyed being a part of it, not least
because I have met lots of pleasant, interesting people who are as keen as I am
to end the consumerist cycle of constantly replacing broken items with new. But
more importantly, it reminds me that I am part of a wider community. That
people, even complete strangers, are approachable and kind. And this is an
incredibly valuable and potent thing to know, especially in a fractured society
where we are separate and encouraged to remain so.
A society made up of the fearful and the un-trusting is a
society that is easy to manipulate, either into spending more money on crap we
don’t need, or into supporting suspect political causes that result in the
election of governments which operate in the service of big business, banks and
corporations rather than ordinary people like us, living in ordinary
communities like ours.
The Repair Café phenomenon is just that. Started in
Amsterdam in 2007 by Martine Postma and with over 1500 cafes globally, and currently
four in Bristol (St Pauls, Fishponds, Bedminster, and Horfield) it is an idea
that has captured the public imagination and taken off in ways that no one had
imagined. But perhaps we should be less surprised. After all, it is a common
sense solution to so many of our collective woes: it helps people save their
money, helps to keep the environment clean and safe, helps to promote community
and cohesion, and counter loneliness and isolation. It also encourages skill
sharing, problem solving, team work and the sense of a good job well done. The importance
of the ethos of the Repair Café cannot be overstated AND if everything operated
along similar lines, we would have a more equal, happier society. We’d be
living in a world where we are truly mindful of the consequences of unimpeded waste
and environmental destruction. Essentially, this is one idea where we are sticking
it squarely to ‘the man’ and having a jolly good time while we’re going about
it.
Conversely, it seems that our institutions and governments
are less taken with it. For example, while individual people within local
government here in Bristol might see the merit in what we are doing, the
machinery of our bureaucratic institutions are creating obstacles, and in some
cases, there is suspicion and downright hostility from certain quarters. It seems
that there is still some misunderstanding about what the Repair Café does and
does not do. For example, we don’t take revenue from charity shops, since
charity shops don’t sell broken goods or clothes. And we’re not a charity
ourselves, and so we don’t take any money from anyone. We are not professional
fixers, and so if you take something to a Repair Café and it subsequently
breaks, we are not liable, but since no money has exchanged hands, nobody feels
cheated. However, we do have an approximate success rate of 85%, in line with
the international average of Repair Cafes, and that’s surely something to be
proud of.
I think it’s important for us that we leave money out of the
equation, since it turns something that is done out of a genuine desire for
good - a purer motive - into something where somebody somewhere has a vested
interest. Much has been made of ‘sustainability’ but I would argue that money
does not necessarily equate to sustainability. In fact, it often stifles it. There
are many among us who want to show that it’s possible to do something
differently, without money and price tags muddying the waters. Perhaps this
makes the Repair Café unique, but surely that’s the point. I fervently hope
that in time it will prove to be a less unique model.
Sadly in Easton, we lost our place at the local library with
a casual email sent with less than 24 hours’ notice of the commencement of the café.
We only have one a month, so the timing really could have been better,
particularly as we had made an effort to promote it locally. Posters up, flyers
sent, social media invites out and…sorry, no café. I don’t want to be negative
or turn this blog post into a rant about Bristol City Council, except to say
that there are better, more courteous, ways to deal with the citizens of this
fair city. Instead, I would extend an invitation outwards to any member of any government
institution or political party, and ask them to come to a Repair Café themselves.
Come along, have a cup of tea, get something fixed, see what we do, and then
decide whether or not it’s a good thing for Bristol and what you can do to help
us. Be part of the change we so desperately need to see.
In the meantime, after some further discussions with BCC who
did offer an apology or two, we are on the lookout for another venue for Easton
as it would be a shame not to have one here. We have had some initial offers
and will be looking into these, but if anyone has any further suggestions, we
would be grateful. Please check out our Facebook page for the Bristol Repair Café network to find out when and where they are happening. I’ll be going to the St
Pauls café on 21st April so maybe I’ll see you there?
If you’re reading this from further afield, perhaps there is
one happening near you? I’d really like to hear from anyone who has a positive
story to share about their local café, so please feel free to comment!