Toss it? No Way!

With more than 3,500 locations across more then 35 countries, Repair Cafés are free meeting places and they’re all about repairing things (together).

What's a Repair Cafe?

At a Repair Cafe, people can bring all sorts of items, such as clothing, furniture, electronics, and appliances, that need repair. Repairers who are skilled in various areas, such as sewing, woodworking, electronics, and mechanics, are on hand to fix these items or provide professional advice for free.

The Repair Cafe movement started in the Netherlands in 2009 and has since spread around the world. Repair Cafes are typically run by local community organizations, such as non-profits, schools, or churches and are often held in community centres, libraries, or other public spaces.

Repair Cafes not only help to reduce waste and save resources, but they also serve as a platform for community engagement and education. Repairers share their knowledge and skills with attendees, and people can learn how to repair items themselves. Repair Cafes also promote social interaction, as people come together to work on repairing items and share their experiences.

In addition to promoting repair and reuse, Repair Cafes also help to raise awareness about the impact of our consumer culture on the environment and society. They encourage people to rethink their consumption habits and to make more sustainable choices.

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Frequently Asked Questions

We throw away vast amounts of stuff. Even things with almost nothing wrong, and which could get a new lease on life after a simple repair. The trouble is, lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how. Knowing how to make repairs is a skill quickly lost. Society doesn’t always show much appreciation for the people who still have this practical knowledge, and against their will they are often left standing on the sidelines. Their skills are never used, or hardly ever.

The Repair Café changes all that! People who might otherwise be sidelined are getting involved again. Valuable practical knowledge is getting passed on. Things are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away. This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products. It cuts CO2 emissions, for example, because manufacturing new products and recycling old ones causes CO2 to be released.

The Repair Café teaches people to see their possessions in a new light, and to, once again, appreciate their value. The Repair Café helps change people’s mindset. This is essential to kindle people’s enthusiasm for a sustainable society.

But most of all, the Repair Café just wants to show how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is. Why don’t you give it a go?

You can bring in items such as: small electrical appliances, clothing, furniture, crockery, housewares, bicycles, toys etc. Almost anything that’s broken (and which you can manage to carry on your own to the Repair Café) is welcome and has a good chance of getting properly repaired. However if you're not sure if something is appropriate please contact us and we'll be able to advise you further.'

No. Alterations of clothing, installation of new PC parts etc. are not considered repairs. There are several businesses located in the local area that will provide these services for a small fee.
All our repairs are provided for free! However voluntary donations are greatly appreciated.
In addition, if your item requires a part we do not have you may need to purchase the part yourself and bring it in to be fixed.

The people visiting the Repair Cafés are not customers of professional repairers. They are people who are now tossing out their broken bedside lamp, blender, chair or coat because getting it repaired is more expensive than buying a new one. By helping people in the Repair Café in return for a voluntary contribution we avoid them having to buy a new one. In that sense, we are not competing with professional repairers but rather with the manufacturer who wants you to throw away your old stuff and a buy new ones.

Furthermore, visitors of the Repair Café learn that their items can be fixed a lot more easily than they might have thought. That way, the chance that they will bring their broken items to a professional repairer in the future will increase rather than decrease. And finally, people used to repair all kinds of stuff at home while there were also professional repairers at work. The thought that repairing items yourself is competition for professional repairers, is not based on experiences of the past. The reason that professional repairers are struggling and disappearing is subject to reasons found elsewhere in our economic system. For example, in the fact that the tax on raw materials is very low whereas tax on labour is high. This is what needs to change!

Worldwide Movement

The first Repair Café was held in the Netherlands in 2009. Since then, there have been thousands of Repair Café's started around the globe!

3,500+

Cafés worldwide

300,000+

Items saved from landfill every year!