“We are looking for a student to examine the rise and significance of Repair Cafes as vehicles of global citizen activism, focused on transforming civil society in the Circular Economy”, says Martin Charter. According to the job description, the successful candidate will investigate both UK and international Repair Cafes, possibly in collaboration with Repair Café International Foundation. Candidates should apply by 17th April 2023.

More information

• Read the job description
• Read the results of previous Repair Cafe research in Farnham
• Read about the Repair Cafe Carbon Calculator that was developed by Farnham Repair Cafe

Het bericht UK university offers PhD studentship on Repair Cafes verscheen eerst op Repaircafe.

The world economy has used as many raw materials in the past 20 years as it did in 80 years before that. This means that the circular economy is further away than ever, according to the Dutch TV program EenVandaag. “This has to do with population growth, but the amount of raw materials consumed per person is also increasing,” Martijn Lopez Cardozo of Circle Economy told EenVandaag on January 16.

Using things for longer and repairing them more often contributes to the solution

According to Martijn, raw material consumption must be reduced by 30 percent. “Then we can live within the limits of the planet.” To do this, he believes, the world needs to be much smarter about resources in the four sectors that use the most raw materials: food, mobility, industry and housing.

But using things for longer and repairing them more often also contributes to the solution. In an earlier Circularity Gap Report, Circle Economy already found that the the role of repair should become twice as large. This earlier report was specifically focused on the Dutch economy. But since circular economy in the Netherlands is more advanced than in the world as a whole, doubling the repair sector will be even more necessary worldwide.

Het bericht ‘Circular economy further away than ever’ verscheen eerst op Repaircafe.

Repair Café International analysed the data entered in 2019 in the RepairMonitor, the online tool with which Repair Café volunteers have been collecting their repair data since 2017. In 2019, data was entered by repairers from 67 Repair Cafés in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, the United States, and Belgium. The data has been compared with that from 2018 and 2017.

Convenience and comfort
“The products in the RepairMonitor say something about the daily lives of people in the Western world,” Repair Café International writes in the report. According to director Martine Postma, they give an indication of the high level of prosperity, and the convenience and comfort that most people in Western countries can afford.

“This is at odds with the pursuit of a sustainable future,” says Postma. “Take a product such as the leaf blower. It’s great when people take a broken leaf blower to the Repair Café instead of buying a new one. But if you really want to live sustainably and environmentally conscious, you better not buy one at all and use a rake in the garden. In that respect, there is still much room for improvement when it comes to not buying things or not doing certain things.”

63 percent of all repairs are successful
Of all the repairs implemented in 2019, 63 percent were successful; slightly less than in 2017 and 2018 (65 percent in both years). “Still, a large majority of the broken items in the Repair Café are being repaired successfully,” Postma responds. The success rate for electric/electronic products is lower (53 percent), but for non-electric/electronic products it is considerably higher (85 percent).

In short: repairing makes sense. In the transition to a circular economy, it should therefore be stimulated as much as possible, Repair Café International concludes in the report. “Repair Cafés are crucial in this respect,” says Postma. “They are populated by skilled volunteers, who spread their enthusiasm for repair like no other.”

Spare parts not available
The report also looks at barriers to repair. The most frequently mentioned obstacle is the non-availability of spare parts. It is also often not possible to open an object. Other frequently mentioned obstacles are: repair is too expensive, takes too much time, the object is too worn out or the object is generally not repairable.

Most presented products and brands
The top ten most presented products in the Repair Café have hardly changed compared to the previous two years. The coffee maker was the most registered product, just like in 2018. Trousers, vacuum cleaners, lamps, bicycles, clocks, computers/laptops, radios and coats made the top ten as well. Except for radios, these were also the most popular products in 2018.

Top ten products in the RepairMonitor 2019, with numbers 

The most common brands in the RepairMonitor 2019 are Philips, Sony, Bosch, Tefal, Miele, Nespresso, Samsung, HP, Black & Decker and Siemens. Only the last two are new in the top ten in 2019.

More information and joining the RepairMonitor
Want to know more? Download the complete report in English. Or read the summary. All figures represented in the report are separately available too.

Want to start collecting data via the RepairMonitor as well? Sign up your Repair Café now!

Het bericht Leaf blowers and air fryers come to Repair Cafés too verscheen eerst op Repaircafe.

What is the Carbon Calculator?

The Repair Café Carbon Calculator is a free and easy-to-use online platform created for Repair Cafés and other repair organizations in order to get an indication of carbon emissions prevented by their repair activities. It is believed to be the first online tool that reports CO2 emission savings resulting from product repairs.

The Carbon Calculator was launched in April 2020 as a result of a three months collaboration between researcher Steve Privett, Professor Martin Charter of Farnham Repair Café and the University for the Creative Arts (UCA).

How does the Carbon Calculator work?

The Carbon Calculator was developed by considering the total sum of embodied Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contained within the products successfully repaired by UK Repair Cafés. This was quantified by estimating the GHG emissions that would have been created had the successfully repaired products instead been replaced by newly manufactured products.

“Our carbon calculator enables users to quickly estimate emission savings by weight or even just the number of successful repairs alone, or in greater detail by product repair category”, says Martin Charter, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Design of UCA, and Chair of the Board of Trustees of Farnham Repair Café.

Furthermore, the calculator takes a number of other variables into consideration such as average transport emissions to and from the Repair Café and spare parts use etc.

Two versions: quick and standard

The Carbon Calculator is available to use in two online versions: quick and standard.

Quick Version: If you want to quickly estimate your repair emission savings all you need to do is enter either the total weight of successful repairs (kg) or the total number of items repaired successfully.

The quick version uses average emission savings for all products but also takes into account other factors which impact emissions such as the type of transportation used and how many miles people typically travel to and from the Repair Café etc.

Want to know more about the use of the quick calculator? Watch this more detailed video explanation.

Standard Version: For the Standard Carbon Calculator, you need to enter the total weight of successful repairs (kg) or the total number of items repaired successfully for each of the 8 different categories described.

The second version estimates repair emissions more accurately: it uses the average product weights and embodied carbon emissions for each general product category, as can be seen in Figure 2. Repair Cafés that keep track of their data e.g. via the RepairMonitor can filter their data and enter into the carbon calculator.

Want to know more about the use of the standard calculator? Watch this more detailed video explanation.

Environmental impacts of Repair Cafés

It seems legitimate that Repair Cafés are good for the environment as the consumption of new products is resource and carbon intensive. However, Professor Charter explains that actually there is “very little hard data about Repair Cafés’ potential ability to mitigate CO2 emissions which has been published to date”. In the past, only broader environmental benefits have been highlighted in the media. The Carbon Calculator is the “first tool to give Repair Cafés the opportunity to change that, by using more accurate evidence-based estimations of CO2 savings from product repairs”, he says.

Steve Privett additionally comments, “the research indicates that the majority of people whose products are repaired continue to use them instead of buying newly manufactured replacements. This reduction in product consumption helps to preserve finite resources and lower carbon emissions.”

By making the Carbon Calculator free-to-use for Repair Cafés, the developers aim to help policy makers, manufacturers, repairers and customers to make the connection between the circular economy and climate change as well as motivate communities towards a culture of repair rather than replacing.

Want to know more?

Steve Privett started his research into carbon savings by Repair Cafés as a student. His first findings on the subject were published on the Repair Café website in 2019. More information about his findings can also be found in this summary.

Het bericht New tool: Repair Café Carbon Calculator verscheen eerst op Repaircafe.

Apart from the petition, Right to Repair Europe also wrote a letter to the European Commission, with demands to make smartphones more easily repairable, to make them last longer and to avoid them prematurely joining the 50 million tons of e-waste that we discard every year. This letter was co-signed by 38 European organisations, among which Repair Café International Foundation.

Here’s the letter:

We call on you to include smartphones and other ICT devices as priority products in the Ecodesign Work Plan 2020-2024, and to confirm this commitment in the Circular Economy Action Plan.

Smartphones and other consumer electronics have rapidly become one of Europe’s most wasteful, resource and carbon intensive product groups. The annual climate impact of Europe’s stock of over 600 million smartphones is more than 14 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, which is more than the annual emissions of Latvia.

Due to energy intensive processes and rare metals involved, some 80% of the direct climate impact of smartphones results from the manufacturing stage. Moreover, smartphones tend to have a much shorter lifetime than other household electronics, with the average phone lasting a mere three years before being replaced. This results in more than six new phones being bought in the EU every second.

The supply chain of ICT is notoriously problematic. Social and environmental dumping are foundations of disposable technology. Precarious employment and exposure to pollutants can be observed in extraction, assembly and waste management linked to the electronics industry across the globe. In Europe, consumers are frustrated with the short lifetimes of devices, and European businesses working in value retention (repair, refurbishment, and reuse) face unnecessary barriers.

Our own analysis, confirmed by a subsequent study led by the European Economic and Social Committee, has shown that extending the lifetime of Europe’s smartphones by just one year would save 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents annually, which is comparable to taking one million cars off the roads.

The ecodesign framework is the best available instrument to increase the lifetime and improve the sustainability of smartphones. The recent inclusion of repair provisions for household appliances under ecodesign has set a welcome precedent to build on and should be extended to other products. While including smartphones and other ICT products was already considered in the 2016-2019 Ecodesign Work Plan, it has regrettably not led to any concrete initiatives. This lack of regulatory action was criticised by the European Parliament in the past and once again in its response to the European Green Deal communication. Addressing the environmental impact of electronics has, furthermore, been highlighted as a crucial future development by the Council in its recent Conclusions on circular economy.

The European Green Deal includes the ambition to improve the circular performance of electronics, supporting repairability and curbing “built-in” obsolescence. This sets a necessary tone for policy, but it should be stressed that these objectives will not be met through take-back schemes or recycling targets which will fail to address the underlying drivers of waste. Likewise, voluntary approaches that have been tried in the past are unlikely to achieve the desired results as they continue to perform badly for other products – most notably printers and set top boxes.

This is why we ask for the universal right to repair, requiring manufacturers to make repairable devices, provide access to spare parts, repair information and long-term security updates to all repairers and consumers. Europe must establish ambitious and robust ecodesign requirements for consumer ICT products, starting with a commitment on smartphones as the most urgent product in need of regulation.

On behalf of over 38 NGOs across Europe, we urge you to commit to the swift development of minimum requirements for the design and after-sales support of smartphones, duly reflecting this in the forthcoming Circular Economy Action Plan as well as the Ecodesign Work Plan 2020-2024. This should, furthermore, be part of a broader strategy aimed at encouraging reuse, repair, and remanufacturing activities in support of the EU’s climate objectives, with other ICT products (e.g. computers, printers and data centres, as well as smaller devices such as e-readers, tablets, and speakers) being addressed as a priority.

Sign the petition here!

Het bericht Demand the right to repair your smartphone verscheen eerst op Repaircafe.

The hundreds of visitors experienced a very diverse programme. Keynote-speaker Tine de Moor placed Repair Café in a broad perspective. She demonstrated how well the initiative corresponds with the current mentality.

Knowledge that is in your hands
“Three quarters of the population already have the mindset to want to repair things: these people only need to be handed the right instruments. Repair Café is one of those instruments”, the professor at Utrecht University stated. She acclaimed the ‘experiential knowledge’ – “knowledge that is in your hands” – in which the Repair Cafés are so rich.

Professor Tine de Moor sees opportunities for Repair Cafés to increase the appreciation for technical knowledge.

Senseo versus Nespresso
After the inspiring keynote, Repair Café repairers had a conversation with product manufacturer Philips for the very first time. Director of sustainability Eelco Smit listened to the tips of repairers Piet van der Zanden (Repair Café Ridderkerk, the Netherlands) and Frans Snijders Blok (Repair Café Bussum, the Netherlands) concerning changes in the design of Senseo – the product that is brought in most frequently in Dutch Repair Cafés. Frans did mention that the Senseo is a very repairable product, especially compared to the Nespresso machine which he has been seeing more and more often in his Repair Café over the last years.

Eelco Smit (middle) promised to relay the suggestions of Piet van der Zanden (second of right) to the product designers at Philips.

It started with the Repair Manifesto
During the morning programme the founder of Repair Café, Martine Postma, looked back on the past decade. She explained how it all started: with the Repair Manifesto of Joanna van der Zanden of Platform21.

Moderator Andrea van Pol (left) in a discussion with Martine Postma.

New, fresh house style
Martine also presented the new house style of Repair Café: “With this new, fresh logo we want to demonstrate that Repair Café is for everyone, including young people.” The new house style will soon become available to all Repair Cafés.

Its components offer more option for users to create items like posters and flyers by themselves, and to vary in layout and use of colour. “The new house style offers more freedom and more choice”, Martine explained.

A hundred grand subsidy for Repair Café International Foundation
There was also political news. Dutch Member of Parliament Carla Dik-Faber (of the ChristenUnie party) said that she submitted an amendment to the budget of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. According to that amendment Repair Café International Foundation will receive a subsidy worth a hundred grand from the government for carrying out her core tasks. “A present for Repair Café’s ten-year anniversary”, the member of parliament said. Her effort is for the subsidy not be allocated once, but on a yearly basis.

Member of parliament Carla Dik Faber (middle) has good news for Repair Café International Foundation.

Martine Postma called this fantastic news, but also mentioned the necessity for it. “At this moment, we do not have structural sources of income”, she said. “Whereas we do contribute to shaping the Circular Economy – which is government policy. It is good to receive a governmental contribution for that.”

News forms of collaboration
At the end of the morning, new forms of collaboration to anchor repair even better in daily life were discussed. Flemish Rosalie Heens talked about the connections that Repair Cafés in Ghent make with other initiatives. Sjaak Langenberg discussed his art project concerning making and repairing in health care. Esther Slegh (Goeree-Overflakkee, the Netherlands) and Annie van Genugten (Uden, the Netherlands) addressed the new concept of Circular Craft Centers, in which thrift stores, recycling centers and Repair Cafés work together.

DIY repairing: smartphones, umbrellas…
After lunch, everyone could roll up their sleeves. There were workshops, presentations and demonstrations. Visitors could, for example, learn how to repair their smartphones with the help of iFixit. They could also fix a broken umbrella and make their own reusable bread bag. Students of the Rietveld Academy displayed new materials in their REPAIRLAB. Visitors could write down their personal action points for a repair culture in their own Repair Manifesto. Numerous artists, designers and researchers presented their works.

Jasper Fleischhauer (left) of iFixit knows everything about smartphone repairs.

Artist Julia Mandle was taught how to fix umbrellas by an umbrella repairer in Paris.

REPAIRLAB: a whole new vision on repariring!

Petra Olgers (left) and Anneloes van Kesteren advised about starting your own Repair Café.

At the youth department in the library visitors could visit the Kids Repair Café.

MOOI STUK! Ode to the repair
The festive day ended with the opening of the exhibition ‘MOOI STUK! Ode to the repair’. ‘Mooi stuk’ has a double meaning: ‘stuk’ means ‘broken’, but ‘mooi stuk!’ also means ‘nice item!’. In this unique exhibition, repaired items are displayed like museum pieces. The idea of the exhibition was conceived by Joanna van der Zanden, who created the entire anniversary programme together with Martine Postma. The five pieces and repair stories will be travelling to multiple libraries in the Netherlands in the coming year.

While you are looking at the repaired item, you can listen to the vision of the repairer.
All pictures on this page: Martin Waalboer/Repair Café International Foundation

Het bericht Celebrating Repair: sparkling symposium in Amsterdam verscheen eerst op Repaircafe.

What is the RepairMonitor?
The RepairMonitor is an international tool for collecting data about the repairs in your own Repair Café. This will give you insight into what appears (literally) on the table in your Repair Café. Which products of which brands do visitors bring in for repair, and what’s the problem with these products?

Apart from that the RepairMonitor gives insight into your specific results, like the success rate of the repairs that you carry out, which events or periods during the year are the busiest, and what kind of solutions are often devised within your Repair Café.

Learn from each other
The RepairMonitor also enables repairers of different Repair Cafés to learn from each other. All participants can search the entire database, and use each other’s repair solutions. When you have a good repair tip, you can share it in the monitor. This will help other repairers.

Circular economy
By participating in the RepairMonitor you also help the repair movement ahead. Repair Café International analyzes the data of all participating Repair Cafés and uses this for lobbying with manufacturers and politicians. We commit ourselves to more robust and more repairable items that fit into the circular economy.

At this moment too many things are unnecessarily thrown out. Your repair data is needed badly to change this.

Join in!
Sign up your Repair Café for the monitor now. This takes no more than a minute. We offer an extensive user manual and instructional videos to get you started in the monitor.

Het bericht Join the RepairMonitor now! verscheen eerst op Repaircafe.

Repair Café International analyzed the data entered in the RepairMonitor, the online tool for repair data collection, in 2018. The data was entered by volunteer repairers at 34 Repair Cafés in the Netherlands, the US, the UK and Australia.

Cleaning, descaling and lubricating
65% of all repairs were successful. In many cases it turned out that items were not really broken, but mainly needed maintenance. Simple tasks such as cleaning, descaling or lubricating were often enough to make a product work again. The fact that people come to a Repair Café for this, mention the report’s authors, is proof of the lack of repair knowledge in society.

“Many people are also insufficiently aware that maintenance is a normal thing; they no longer see this as a self-evident task that you perform at home, as part of everyday life”, says Martine Postma, director of Repair Café International.

Putting repair back into the classroom
According to the foundation, this must change urgently. Postma: “Many countries want to make the transition to a circular economy. In such a society, repairing and taking good care of your things are normal activities. Our volunteers are happy to show their neighbours the basics of repairing, but the real change will come when repair skills are put on the curriculum once more.”

More robust design can prevent problems
Analysis of the RepairMonitor data also shows that many problems could have been prevented by more robust design of mainly electrical appliances. The most common problems found, when these items are brought to the Repair Café, are wire breaks, worn gears, broken switches and buttons, reduced battery capacity etc. “These parts are often not produced in a way that they can take regular long-term use”, the report states.

Popular products and brands
The most common item brought to the Repair Café in 2018 was the coffee machine. Also vacuum cleaners, bicycles, lamps, trousers, sewing machines, clocks, coats, irons and laptops are often brought in for repair. The most popular brands in the RepairMonitor 2018 are Philips, Sony, Bosch, Tefal, Samsung, Miele, HP, Nespresso, Gazelle and Braun.

Top 10 most popular products in RepairMonitor 2018, with numbers

More information and joining
Want to know more? Download the complete report in English. Or read the summary.
Want to collect data via the RepairMonitor too? Sign up your Repair Café now!

Het bericht Lack of repair knowledge hinders circular economy verscheen eerst op Repaircafe.