Fix it or pitch it? Often when something tears or shows wear or breaks, the impulse is to send it to the landfill and buy something new.
That’s a waste of the material and energy that it took to produce the item. Repair Café BG encourages people to fix what they have instead of throwing it away.
On Saturday, July 16, a Repair Café will be held from 1-4 p.m. at the Maumee Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 20189 N. Dixie Highway, Bowling Green.
Volunteer repair experts, equipped with tools and materials, will be available to help make all possible repairs free of charge.
People visiting the Repair Café BG can bring along their broken items from home – toasters, lamps, hair dryers, clothes, bikes, toys, crockery, anything that is broken is welcome, and most likely can be repaired.
If the Repair Café BG specialists cannot fix the item, they can advise on what local business might repair.
Nick Hennessey, BGSU sustainability manager, said that at the last café held at the campus Earth Fair in April he brought in a favorite Irish knit sweater that had moth holes. He was astonished how well the holes were knitted back together. Good as new, he said.
By promoting repairs, Repair Café BG wants to help reduce mountains of waste. This is absolutely necessary, according to organizer Jennifer Karches. “We throw away piles of stuff in Wood County. Even things with practically nothing wrong with them, which could easily be used again after a simple repair. Unfortunately, many people have forgotten that they can have things repaired. Repair Café BG wants to change all that.”
Repair Café BG is also meant to put neighbors in touch with each other in a new way and to discover that a lot of knowledge and practical skills can be found close to home.
Karches notes: “If you repair a bike, a CD player or a pair of pants together with a previously unfamiliar neighbor, you look at that person in a different light the next time you run into them on the street. Jointly making repairs can lead to pleasant contacts in the neighborhood.”
Repairs can save money and resources, and can help minimize CO2 emissions, she said. “But above all, Repair Café BG just wants to show how much fun (and how easy) repairing things can be.”
The Repair Café is part of an international effort started in the Netherlands in 2009 by Amsterdam-based journalist Martine Postma. A year later she established the Repair Café Foundation that supports other groups around the world wishing to launch their own Repair Cafés.
The first Repair Café locally was held in 2019. But could not be held during the pandemic, and has now resumed hosting events.
