The Repair Cafe movement is tackling our tech waste crisis and changing consumer behaviour

A movement known as Repair Cafe which urges people to bring in broken computers, televisions, smartphones, and more to be fixed by an army of volunteer experts at a local venue is gaining traction in Australia after launching abroad.

Tech waste is a problem the digital era is yet to fully grasp. When electronics end up in landfill, toxic chemicals like lead and mercury leak into the ground and pose a risk to wildlife, humans, and the environment, the World Health Organisation said.

It was learning about the world’s ballooning landfills that prompted Dutch former journalist Martine Postma to launch the Repair Café International Foundation in 2009. She tells SmartCompany she had been investigating waste reduction and waste prevention when the idea came to her.

“At a certain moment, I wanted to do more than write about it. I wanted to really try to change people’s behaviour in this respect. So I started to think about it: why do people throw away so much, why do we create so much waste?” she said.

“One of the reasons, I found, is that people no longer make repairs. Most of them don’t know how to do it anymore. So, when something breaks, they just don’t know what to do. It’s easier to buy a new product.”

Postma was determined to make repairs attractive again, and the idea began to form in her mind: the monthly event would have to be “available around the corner, it would have to be cheaper than buying a new product, and it would have to be fun — people would have to want to go there, because it’s a nice place,” she said.

She decided to test the idea in Amsterdam, assembling local experts to host the first Repair Cafe workshop, where people could bring in toys, bicycles, clothing, computers, and almost anything. It was a runaway success, she says, that brought the community together for a beneficial result all around.

“So I wrote a manual on how to start your own Repair Cafe in your neighbourhood. This manual evolved into a comprehensive starter kit, which is now available in 5 languages via our website Repaircafe.org,” she said.

Revolve Recycling general manager Guido Verbist, who is based in Sydney’s inner west, is one of the 61 hosts who took up the mantle in Australia (34 are in Tasmania alone). He’s been hosting a Repair Cafe in Marrickville for close to ten years, he tells SmartCompany.

“We know there is a need for it and an environmental benefit to it,” Verbist said.

The local community has been “very positive and supportive,” he says. “People like it for a variety of reasons, it can be an emotional connection to an item, cultural value, financial value, environmental benefits [or] financial benefits,” he says.

The idea, Postma continues, is for people to come away from Repair Cafes with more than just a fixed appliance and a chat, but rather a shift in their consumer behaviour about what constitutes waste, Postma says.

“Once you have experienced the possibilities of repair yourself, you will start to think differently about your own throw-away behaviour, about repairing and about sustainability and circularity,” she said.

“I think that’s the mindset that we need for a sustainable future.”

And Australia is the perfect setting. We are one of the world’s top producers of e-waste, ranking fifth with 21.7kg of waste per person in 2019. Every year, 88% of the 4 million computers and 3 million televisions purchased in Australia end up in landfill, contributing to over 140,000 tonnes of electronic waste.

Postma says she’d like to see a Repair Cafe in every community around the world, not only to slash the amount of e-waste but also to empower the local experts and encourage people to become skilled themselves in repairs.

To do this, she says, “professional repairs should become cheaper, and new products should become more expensive”.

“When new products are more expensive, people would sooner have a sense of value, which would lead them to handle these products with more care, and for example, perform maintenance regularly,” she reasoned.

“I firmly believe this is the way to go, for resources are scarce, but human labour is not scarce at all.”