You have a faulty electrical device or something broken and are thinking of getting rid of it. This is not necessarily the solution. There is definitely a repair café near you. It is a participatory reform workshop. A concept that was invented in Holland and was a huge success.
Montpellier resident Claire Almairas just bought a small heater with an extra fan for her bathroom. But after a few uses, it was already broken. Instead of buying a new one, you look for a way to fix it.
“We have already accumulated a lot of waste and I would like to avoid adding more. Disposing of this machine when it can work again is environmental nonsense”
repair together
But Claire is not an expert in crafts. So this Saturday she goes near her home to Repair Café. And she’s not the only one waiting in front of this room loaned by the Montpellier city council.
At 2 pm, the room opens. Dozens of “visitors,” as they are called at Repair Café, come bags full of toasters, microwaves, radios or even computer screens to record in an effort to find a solution to their problem.
Expert volunteers who divide tasks according to their skills Come in turn to meet the visitors and invite them to sit at a table in front of them.
Here We repair everything that can be moved at arm’s length In four sectors: IT, home appliances, and electronics, there is also a sewing workshop. But don’t imagine it comes with a dishwasher or washing machine.
Pierre, a maintenance technician by profession, is the one who will help Claire fix her radiator.
“It is not after sales service. Each person is responsible for his purpose. We try to fix it together but we can’t guarantee it. We have tools and some parts in stock but the visitor may also have to purchase a spare part and come back to us afterwards if needed. “
Skilled transfer of knowledge It is also the goal led by this association that teaches you to do it yourself. Here everyone participates. From table to table, everyone shares their knowledge and comes to help when the solution doesn’t seem obvious.
Crashes for a few cents
And it’s often worth trying to fix. This avoids the disposal and consumption of new resources to manufacture new resources and failures are often benign.
Frederick sets out to dismantle Benjamin’s computer screen.
“Often these are small malfunctions with very little worth of components. There you have to change the capacitor on this card. It is worth a few pennies and the screen will come back indefinitely.”
Benjamin has a smile on his face. “Electronics is not my field and I find it very interesting to learn. I am a student and can’t buy a new computer monitor. I also save money and will know in the future how to do it.” Benjamin Pintoux, student at Montpellier. For him, Repair Café is also a guarantee that he will not be robbed.
“When we go to the store, we are never sure that we will not pay for a new one on the pretext that our device is at the end of its life.”
So the fix cafe puts the value back on things. But it is clear that Planned obsolescence is not an empty word. I prefer to talk about regulated obsolescence. We note that some manufacturers have designed the product poorly or the device cannot be repaired because the parts, for example, are stuck or the after-sales service has not provided any spare parts. They voluntarily seek to control the end of a thing’s life in order to introduce a new being. Not everyone plays the fix game.” Sorry for Frederic Deschamps
in 2020, Fixed 60% of the 500 items processed at Repair Café. In 30% of cases, the malfunction is diagnosed and the thing is fixable. Only 10% of them ended up in a recycling center.
This correlation assessed the volume of the preserved objects at 1.3 tons. Beautiful result.
For Claire, after working for an hour with Pierre on his coolant, the problem was fixed. I changed a thermal fuse for a few cents and was left with the coolant in perfect working order.
