

The repair cafe international how to#
Here’s how to find one and what to expect. Repair café events usually happen once a month or so at libraries, schools, or other community centers across the country. There’s a good chance that one is happening near you soon, too. Multiple experts have told us that the best way to shop more sustainably is to use what you already have as long as possible. Not only can these events help you save money on repairs or replacements, but they also keep items, from clothing to electronics, out of landfills, reduce the amount of hazardous materials that make their way back into the environment, and reduce emissions that go into manufacturing and shipping a brand-new thing. Most of the time, people “go home with a perfectly working item,” Cotton said. Darren Cotton, The Tool Library’s executive director, told me that Buffalo’s repair café has kept more than 5,000 pounds of waste out of landfills since it opened in 2017, in recent months saving visitors thousands of dollars in repair costs, too. The repair café where I live, in Buffalo, New York, is hosted by my local tool library, a nonprofit organization that lets people borrow tools instead of buying them.

Many communities have events called repair cafés, where teams of volunteer “fixers” can help diagnose the problems with your broken items and try to fix them. Before you ditch that temperamental toaster or give up on that lovely antique lamp with the frayed cable, you may have a way to get it fixed for free.
