Don't Toss It, Fix It!

Coming to a location near you, perhaps....

Frustrated by our throwaway culture, people around the world are organizing free repair events. These gatherings, which are called Repair Cafes, Fixit Clinics and other names, allow people to connect and help each other fix broken items instead of replacing them. Now, there’s an easy way to find one of these events near you. On Tuesday, U.S. PIRG Education Fund and iFixit announced the opening of the Community Repair Hub, the first nationwide registry of upcoming community repair events. Massachusetts, with no shortage of thrifty, commonsense types, has two such events scheduled in the next month alone–one in Norwood and one in Worcester. .

“The line was out the door at the last repair event I attended a few months ago,” said Janet Domenitz, Director of the MASSPIRG Education Fund, which supports consumers’ right to repair. “And that event was just for laptops. Bay Staters are enthusiastic about their right to repair, and we expect this new registry to add to the excitement.”

“The rapid growth of repair events is proof that people want more than a world where nothing is built to last. Our tool helps people join in this joyful movement of people who just want to use their stuff for longer,” said Meghan Smith, Right to Repair associate organizing director with U.S. PIRG Education Fund. “Repair is a sustainable solution to our ever-growing waste problem and helps build stronger, more resilient communities all over the world.”

These events, often held at churches and libraries, bring together volunteer fixers, who help repair items brought in by neighbors for free. Even though no one, centralized organization promotes these events, thousands have sprung up organically over the last decade. Last fall, repair enthusiasts held more than 3,400 events for International Repair Day, a global celebration of these community events.

Before the launch of the new community repair finder tool, there was no central listing of these events around the country. Organizers hope this new tool will help connect more people to repair events near them.

More than 70 fix-it groups from across the United States already have signed up to use the tool, and they have listed more than 30 upcoming events. We are recruiting more organizers to add their events to the calendar.

“We’ve gone from a couple of events a year to hundreds,” said Peter Mui, founder of the Fixit Clinics, one of the more popular free community repair event groups. “Repair adds so much value -- it’s creative, it preserves the earth and its resources, and it’s fun. We want to propagate repair skills and that ethos throughout the entire world.”

iFixit developed its website to be a free tool that anyone can use to mend products and build communities.

"Fixing what's broken is a quietly hopeful act, and it's even better when it's shared," said iFixit community manager Kris Rodriguez. "The Community Repair Hub makes it easy to find and host the events where people come together to do exactly that."