The Positive Climate Change Impact of Repairing Products

The Positive Climate Change Impact of Repairing Products

If you’ve not heard of the Repair Café (or Fix It Clinic or similar events), please check it out. Repair Cafés are brilliant and offer a way to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions within your community.

SalemRecycles, the recycling committee of Salem, MA, has been hosting all types of zero waste events for over 10 years and started hosting Repair Cafés in August of 2017. They now run 2-3 Cafés per year, and, believe me, they have it down to a science. While visiting a recent Repair Café in Salem, I had the chance to talk with one of the organizers, Micaela Guglielmi, Waste Reduction Coordinator, City of Salem – Engineering Dept.

“The Repair Café not only prevents broken products from ending up in the trash, but they help the community with a free service to fix that broken product, appliance, or family heirloom – with the added intent that residents will learn how to fix products on their own in the future. And, as this is a free event, it’s perfect for those areas within our community that are less fortunate.” According to Ms. Guglielmi.

Below are a few pictures from a recent Repair Café in Salem (courtesy of the SalemRecycles Facebook page)

We’ll get back to the Repair Café event in a few minutes, but first let’s talk about how repairing products has a positive effect on Climate Change.

Many of us have heard about the 4 R’s of waste reduction – Reduce, Reuse, Repair, and Recycle. But, how does the “Repair” fit into the Climate Change equation?

The 4 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle

The Repair component impacts climate both before and after we use the product. Think of a very simple product lifecycle: a product is manufactured, we buy and use the product, and at some point, we discard the product. This product impacts Climate Change on the front end by producing emissions throughout the manufacturing (and transportation) cycle and on the backend with the emissions coming out of the landfill or incinerator.

So, if we can Repair a product versus discarding a product, we save emissions not only from waste, but also by eliminating the need to produce the new, replacement product. If we can extend the life of our products, we can reduce emissions. The only caveat here is the case where the existing product produces a lot of emissions during use compared to a newer, more efficient version of the product – appliances are a great example.

Still not convinced?

For every ton of trash we produce, the equivalent of 71 tons of manufacturing, mining, oil and gas exploration, agricultural, coal combustion and other discards are produced! (source: Institute for Local Self-Reliance and GrassRoots Recycling Network, 2000. Wasting and Recycling in the U.S. p.13. Based on data reported in Office of Technology Assessment, Managing Industrial Solid Wastes from manufacturing, mining, oil, and gas production, and utility coal combustion (OTA-BP-O-82), Feb. 1992, p.7, 10.)

Not that throwing away that toaster, microwave, coffee maker, or bicycle adds up to a ton, but the point is that the ratio of 71:1 is significant. For every pound that you throw away, the equivalent of 71 pounds of discards are produced!

Again, extending the life of a product has a large impact on reducing emissions.

But, what do we typically do when a product stops working? We toss it and buy a new one, right? Most of us don’t have the knowledge, tools, or time to fix it.

This is why the Repair Café is brilliant. Repair Café has created a novel, community-led template for setting up a temporary repair shop that will allow citizens to bring their broken products in for repair – free of charge!

Please review the Repair Café website , but in essence it works like this:

1. A community organization (often the Waste Committee) decides to organize a Repair Café event and signs up with Repair Café to get a kit that shows them how to do it.
2. The organizers identify a group of volunteers that have repair skill sets in different areas – electronics, fabrics/sewing, gluing, mechanicals, etc. They ask these volunteers to bring their ‘tool box’ and to volunteer 3-4 hours of their time on a certain day.
3. A location is set up with tables or stations that are manned by the volunteers.
4. The event is marketed throughout the community.

And, bingo, many products are saved from the trash!

During the event, repair volunteers will be available to mend clothing, sew buttons, sharpen scissors and knives, tinker with or rewire electronics and lamps, glue wooden furniture and ceramics, and occasionally provide computer diagnostics. These volunteers show the participants exactly what they’re doing to repair their broken treasure.  This is a valuable learning experience for participants to feel more confident fixing their items on their own in the future.  Even if the volunteers cannot fix an item, they can provide advice to the participant or suggest a part for them to buy to fix it on their own.

Below are a few more pictures from a recent Repair Café in Salem (courtesy of the SalemRecycles Facebook page)

But, is it hard to recruit a group of volunteers that will have the variety of repair skills to support the event?

Not according to Ms. Guglielmi, “We’re very excited to see these events grow as more residents bring their unique items and more tinkers want to volunteer their time to repair these items.  It’s very rewarding to see all of the happy residents leaving the event with their repaired treasures and knowing that we have so many dedicated volunteers to make this happen.”

So, certainly there are hard data facts about the reduced emissions that result from setting up periodic Repair Cafes, but there is also a soft benefit for the community.

“It’s about driving community awareness. Even if people don’t bring an item to be fixed, they will be more aware of the concept and the reason for running a Repair Café – this will make them more aware in their daily lives and they will start to be more conscious about throwing stuff away and feeling confident they can attempt to repair an item on their own” Added Ms. Guglielmi.

We’d love to hear from you. Are you running a Repair Café in your community? Or, something similar?

To understand more about how your community can be engaged and educated around the topic of Climate Change and reduced emissions, please feel free to explore our Green Community Homeowner Campaign.