Please fix our throw away economy!
Photo credit: Mark A Phillips, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
On 25th March, High Wycombe Repair Café joined repair groups from across the UK at a repair cafe in Parliament, to call for policies to make it easier to repair our things. The event was organised by The Restart Project and Back Market, and supported by other organisations including SUEZ and Green Alliance.
This year, the event was bigger than ever before, with 91 MPs in attendance and 100 repair groups represented from all four UK nations. Organisers and allies called for ambitious repair and reuse policies and celebrated the 143 MPs that have signed up to the Repair and Reuse Declaration, with 31 signing up at the event itself.
The event saw a number of speeches by politicians and campaigners alike including, DEFRA Minister Mary Creagh, The Restart Project, Back Market, and Helen Hayes MP who also signed as the honorary 100th supporter of the Repair and Reuse Declaration. Team Repair gave a live demonstration to a class of school children who learned to fix their first gadgets. And after taking Sean Fletcher’s broken toaster away with her following an appearance on BBC Breakfast last month, Fixing Factory volunteer Mikayla got to return it to him — now fixed!
With the Circular Economy Growth Plan due to be published this spring, the repair community is taking a timely chance to influence their local politicians. Four in five people in the UK want the government to support repair more[1]. It reduces our impact on the planet, saves us money and can be incredibly rewarding. But for repair and reuse to thrive in the UK, we need real policy change to support it.
Maddy Howe from High Wycombe Repair Café was delighted to meet up with Emma Reynolds our local MP, at the event in Parliament, particularly as she holds the post of Scecretary of State of DEFRA.
Maddy is the lead volunteer for the High Wycombe Repair Cafe in the Refresh team. It was Maddy’s idea to set it up which was way back in the days of covid. Maddy says “I was talking to the small group Wycombe Environment Projects about how I’d like to start a repair cafe, and within a few weeks we had the Church offering to host us - on a ‘temporary’ basis to allow us to get going - conveniently having the Mustard Seed cafe ready to serve our customers. There were enough people in the group to cover mechanical and electrical repairs, and I knew a textile repairer, so within a few months we were up and running - we worked on the basis ‘do it and they will come’. The Church has decided that they rather like hosting us every month, so we are delighted to still be there. There is now a team of about 20 of us, covering front desk admin and the repairers. Its such a lovely atmosphere. I’m really glad to be part of such a great team.”
Following the event at Parliament, High Wycombe Repair Café will be holding their monthly repair event for the local community, on Saturday 11th April at All Saints Church in the town centre from 10.00 to 1.00. At the event, volunteers attempt to fix all kinds of items from soft toys to vacuum cleaners. High Wycombe Repair Café is held on the second Saturday of each month.
Fiona Dear, Co-Director, The Restart Project, says: “It was brilliant to be in Parliament with representatives of 100 of the UK’s repair cafes. Repair is something we can all do to save money and reduce waste, but it’s often too hard to fix our stuff. We want to show that repair is popular, and that government support to help us to give things a second life will also be popular. “
Katy Medlock, Back Market, says: “We were thrilled to return to Parliament for our third consecutive year alongside our partner, The Restart Project, championing repair and reuse. At Back Market, we’re on a mission to shift behaviour around new tech, encouraging more people to make the most from what they already own. Extending a device’s lifespan from 2.5 to 10 years can reduce carbon emissions by up to 68%, which is why we’re calling for greater support of the Repair and Reuse Declaration to help accelerate progress toward a stronger, more sustainable future for repair.”
[1] The poll figures are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,051 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 12th - 13th October 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).