Celebrate the work being done across the country to keep older items in use!
WORDS: WENDY GRAHAM
Hit TV shows, including The Repair Shop and Find It, Fix It, Flog It have been showing viewers just how enjoyable and rewarding it is to give something a new lease of life.
And it seems that these shows have inspired us, with more and more people taking up DIY over the last few years.
This is great news for the planet, as every year in the UK, 22 million pieces of furniture and 1 million tonnes of electrical items are binned. Making simple repairs could reduce these figures significantly.
While many items don’t feel as if they are designed to be repaired, new right-to-repair legislation is changing things. Launched earlier this year, these new laws make it easier and more cost-effective for consumers to repair their faulty products. Apple, for example, used to prevent people from repairing their own products, but now offers tool rental kits and parts to its customers.
As part of this repair revolution, tool libraries have been popping up across the country. These libraries make it cheap and easy to borrow the tools you need to carry out repairs.
And if you aren’t so handy with a screwdriver or sewing machine, worry not. Community-led repair cafés have also been springing up, where you can take your damaged items in and have someone repair them for you.
The Repair Shop
Launched in 2017, now in its 12th series, this BAFTA award-winning show captivated viewers’ hearts.
Presented by Jay Blades, a professional furniture restorer, every episode follows Britain’s most skilled restorers as they work lovingly on precious, faded family treasures. The touching stories regularly leave viewers in tears.
Beloved teddies are lovingly darned and restuffed. Wonky clock mechanisms are remedied and polished to perfection. Damaged paintings are cleaned and painstakingly restored. Even seemingly irreparable items – such as a glass terrarium crushed to smithereens – are brought back to life. Every episode climaxes when the beloved items are reunited with their owners.
Share and Repair Bath and North East Somerset
For those in the southwest of England, Share and Repair have been running free repair cafés across Bath and North East Somerset since April 2017. In that time, its talented volunteers have repaired more than 3,400 items. These include mobile
