The role of repair cafés in reducing waste
Grouville Repair Café Founder Jennifer Bridge explains how repair cafés have a role in reducing waste and are an important part of promoting a circular economy
First published: Jersey Evening Post 15.04.2023
The over-riding first impression of anyone walking into Grouville repair café is the joyful atmosphere at these events. Attendees’ senses will be delighted by live music, animated chatter, and the waft of freshly brewed coffee while industriously focused repairers are hard at work. If that isn’t enough there’s freshly baked homemade chocolate cake too.
Grouville repair café has three aims: social, environmental, and educational. People predominantly, but not exclusively from Grouville and its environs, of all age groups come together with a common purpose in a fun, social, constructive, and educational setting. While having fun, visitors to the café learn new skills and make new acquaintances while helping to reduce waste and play a part in reducing the Parish carbon footprint.
The social aspect of Grouville repair café provides a space where people can come together, helping to strengthen social ties, and fostering a sense of belonging within our Parish community. Situated at Grouville Parish Hall (unless we are on tour), it provides an opportunity for people to connect who in other spheres might not be natural allies, this can lead to the formation of new relationships and greater understanding within our community. Furthermore, Grouville repair café can help to combat social isolation, particularly among those whose anxiety has been exacerbated by the pandemic, by providing a welcoming and inclusive environment where people can participate in meaningful activities, engage with others, or just sit and enjoy a cup of tea, a piece of cake and some live music.
Without over-egging it, I would say that Grouville Repair Café is filled with ‘Ubuntu’. To quote the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu “Ubuntu… speaks of the very essence of being human… you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, “My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.”
Education is also a key aspect of Grouville repair café, as the café provides an opportunity for repairers to support and advise each other and members of the public. In addition, repairs and attendees can learn new skills and gain knowledge about repairing and maintaining items. Repairers are encouraged to involve the owners of items in the process of repair. This could take many forms such as explaining what they are doing, showing the person how to use a particular tool, or teaching the person how to do the repair under guidance. For example, at a recent repair café, Clive watched a repair to a food mixer in progress and later reported back that he had successfully mended his own mixer at home.
Jersey has set a goal to become carbon neutral by 2030. In October 2022, I was filled with hope as Infrastructure Minister, Tom Binet was reported saying that he was committed to a “circular economy” to help “deliver against wider environmental and carbon reduction aims. However, not one month later, it was widely reported by Jersey’s media that we were one of three places in Europe where less waste was being recycled in 2022 than previous years.
Disappointingly, Jersey’s recycling rate was 27%, well below the UK average of 44.4% and shockingly lower than our sister isle with 72% recycling. We are almost at the bottom of the league for the whole of Europe.
My attempt to find out further data was thwarted by the www.gov.je website’s recycling information only reporting up to 2020. Although, I am heartened that Environment Minister, Jonathan Renouf has advised me that the government is working on providing this data. I would like to understand the methodology underpinning these statistics and whether there is a plan to include repair café data.
On a more positive note, one of the key strategies identified in Jersey’s Carbon Neutral Roadmap (approved by the States Assembly 29th November 2022) is to reduce waste by promoting repair, reuse, and recycling. Grouville repair café, along with its sister organisations in St. Brelade and St. Helier, is playing our part in Jersey achieving this goal.
It might be helpful at this point to remind us of what ‘becoming carbon neutral’ means. Put simply, it means achieving a balance between the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and the amount removed from it. It involves reducing carbon emissions as much as possible and then offsetting any remaining emissions through activities such as reforestation or carbon capture and storage with the goal being to achieve zero net carbon emissions.
This is needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change. I am conscious that not all readers of the Jersey Evening Post may accept the science behind climate change. However, I think it’s worth pointing out that over 97% of climate scientists now agree that climate change is real, primarily caused by human activity, and poses a significant risk to the environment and human societies. This consensus is based on a comprehensive review of scientific evidence and research conducted over several decades.
The settled position is that if we want to preserve our planet for future generations, we need to accept that carbon emissions are contributing to the warming of the planet, causing more frequent and severe natural disasters, loss of biodiversity, and ensuing economic instability.
I understand that even if readers accept climate change as fact, some may argue that a small island such as Jersey becoming carbon neutral cannot make a significant difference. However, I would argue that when joined together like a patchwork quilt with other small communities, our efforts can lead to a worldwide impact. By way of example, repair cafés around the world to date have prevented 75,983 kg of waste and 902,593 kg of CO2 emission with 25,572 items repaired.
I hope that Jersey will aspire to serve as an example for larger cities and countries, demonstrating that sustainable practices can be implemented on a smaller scale and still be effective. Additionally, the collective efforts of many small communities can create a ripple effect that encourages others to follow suit. This can lead to a shift in societal values towards sustainability, inspiring individuals, and governments around the world to act towards reducing their carbon footprint.
Obviously, not all people turning up to repair cafés are thinking of higher ideals. Indeed, many may just want their favourite figurine fixed, their cordless vacuum to suck again or a zip replaced on a comfortable pair of jeans. And that is fine.
Several people who arrive at a repair café are surprised to find that the first thing we do is weigh their items in addition to recording key data including make, model, and fault. This has caused some amusement as people have written down their own weight instead of the item’s. We weigh the items to calculate their carbon footprint. Anonymised data is then uploaded to www.restarters.net, which is the website for a global community of people who run local repair events, who want to do something to challenge “throw-away-culture” and believe in the “Right to Repair”.
Data captured by the three Jersey repair cafés and collated by Restarters.net could provide the government with valuable insights into the impact of repair cafés on Jersey’s sustainability efforts. For example, to date, Grouville Repair Café has held five events with 195 visitors and 309 volunteer hours. Successful repairs have prevented 515Kg of waste going to La Collette.
However, it’s not just about numbers, it’s about changing mindsets. Anecdotally, we are already seeing a change. People are turning up, on the way to La Collette recycling, bringing in items such as TVs, toasters, and kettles, just in case they can be fixed. People are also bringing items to be fixed and then leaving them on the ‘giving table’ run by Sarah Howard, from Grouville Community, Environment and Change. The ‘giving table’ is a space where people can give and take items according to their needs — free of charge — a living embodiment of a circular economy.
For those not familiar with the concept of a circular economy, it is an economic model that aims to keep resources in use for as long as possible, by minimising waste and maximising the use of resources. In a circular economy, materials and products are designed to be reused, refurbished, repaired, or recycled at the end of their useful life. A circular economy is underpinned by principles such as designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. The goal of a circular economy is to create a more sustainable and resilient economy that benefits both people and our planet.
Repair cafés are a key component in a circular economy as they provide a platform for individuals to learn how to repair their broken household items instead of throwing them away.
In addition, by reducing waste, repair cafés can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve resources, and promote sustainable living. To date, Grouville repair café has prevented 5,211Kgs of CO2 emissions. This is the equivalent emissions as driving for 43,425Km.
Calculating the CO2 emissions prevented is not easy as data is either hard to come by or not standardised for electrical and electronic items. To mitigate this situation a team of volunteers from restarters.net extensively researched the carbon footprint of the different categories of items. Where they could not find data, they created a best-effort response by comparing the item with a similar one.
Data captured by Restarters.net already helps identify the most common household items that break and has resulted in manufacturers making modifications. For example, users of a particular laptop reported that its hinges were prone to breaking, leading to the screen becoming detached from the keyboard. After analysing the data provided by Restarters.net, the company redesigned the hinge mechanism to make it more robust and less likely to fail.
In another example, Restarters.net users reported issues with a mobile phone’s screen and camera modules, which could not be easily replaced. Anyone can use the website, I know that before purchasing a cordless vacuum, for example, I would want to visit this site to see which ones are most frequently brought in for repair.
If you haven’t been to a repair café yet, why not give it a go? You can help promote a culture of repair, reuse, and recycling in the island, which is critical to achieving the goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.
For more information join one of the three repair café Facebook pages or email: jenniferbridge@mac.com.
