Chesterfield Repair Café calls for Repair for Everyone this Repair Day

They will also be signing a new Repair Declaration and encouraging Chesterfield’s MP, Toby Perkins to do the same.

At the event, the public are encouraged to bring along their household items that can be fixed before they end up in recycling. Their volunteer fixers will help visitors with the repairs and give advice on any further maintenance needed. The Chesterfield Repair Café has been running since 2016 and is held monthly on the third Saturday morning of the month. Data records of repairs show that they have helped avoid over 10,000kg of CO2 emissions and 1,500kg of waste. Altogether, they have looked at 946 items and 536 of these have been repaired or had their life extended.

International Repair Day celebrates the power of community repair to prevent waste and learn skills together. This Repair Day, over 100 waste busting repair events are taking place across the UK and many more across the world including an online repair cafe, a game of the price is right outside the EU parliament and hundreds of community fixing sessions. In the UK alone, there are more than 500 repair cafes. People can find their closest at https://communityrepairnetwork.org.uk/find.

The UK Repair Declaration calls for measures to make repair easier for everyone by: making repair more affordable; expanding our Right to Repair regulations; helping the public choose more repairable products; supporting repair training and apprenticeships; and prioritising reuse when waste is processed. The Repair Declaration can be signed at repairreusedeclaration.uk

Chris, a volunteer fixer at the Repair Café, says: “We’re helping the people of Chesterfield to get support with repair, both by increasing repair skills and making household products last longer. Visitors feel welcome at our events and are keen to learn about repair and how to purchase items that are more repairable – and all this along with a cuppa and some lovely cakes.”

Fiona, Co-Director at The Restart Project says: Everyone should have easy access to low cost repair and that’s why we’re launching a new Repair and Reuse Declaration this Repair Day. Most people don’t like throwing away usable things, especially when struggling with the cost of living crisis, but it’s too hard to give products a second life through repair and reuse. Government policies can stem the tide of throwaway products through making repair easier, cheaper and more accessible, and making reuse a priority over recycling.