The repair movement has grown over the past decade, spawning many new groups worldwide. The loose organisation grew out of the realisation that we need to do more than recycle materials. Many ordinary items, like toasters, furniture, or clothes are not made to last. This is a waste of an enormous amount of useful stuff.
Repairing lots of household items such as kettles or lamps will bring them back into use with a far
lower amount of carbon emissions and waste/pollution than sending them to landfill or melting down and recycling their components.
A whole network of repair cafes and repair events generally happens all over the UK in community halls, schools and other venues. The Restart Project is a main hub for this activity. It aims to counteract our throwaway society by making electronics work for people, for the planet, and for longer. The UK is one of the worst offenders: it is the second-highest per capita producer of electronic waste in the world!
The project has created the Repair and Reuse Declaration, which calls for politicians to support repair and reuse by implementing these five key policies. A YouGov poll commissioned for the declaration launch showed strong support for all of these measures – polling results are indicated in brackets below.
The Repair Project asks UK government to:
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Make repair more affordable, through tax reductions (80% support) and repair vouchers (79% support).
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Expand the UK’s right to repair regulations to cover all consumer products, strengthen design standards and remove barriers to repair for everyone (85% support).
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Introduce a repair index to help the public choose more repairable and durable products (80% support).
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Introduce requirements and targets for reuse and repair to be prioritised over recycling and providing investment to make this a reality. This should be a key part of amended extended producer responsibility rules (83% support).
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Support a new generation of repairers through repair training, accreditation and apprenticeships (85% support).
These are admirable goals, and would make a difference to the amount of junk that goes into landfill all the time. Legislation could ensure that this will move from an aspiration to a reality.