Free fix is in: repair café aims to keep items out of landfills

Stephen Kirk wants to give people a chance to fix items they’re not ready to let go of.

The Spence Neighbourhood Association staffer took notice when repair cafés started popping up around the world, and he decided to bring the idea to Winnipeg.

The café invites people to bring broken items like bikes, clothes and small kitchen appliances to the association’s headquarters to get free repairs by a team of skilled volunteers.

“Certainly in our neighbourhood, a lot of people’s motivation is economic, they would rather fix it than have to buy a new one,” said Kirk, the environmental and open spaces coordinator for the Spence Neighbourhood Association.

“Certainly in our neighbourhood, a lot of people’s motivation is economic…”

He said some people may not be able to afford taking the item to a professional to repair, while others may have sentimental connections or simply want to avoid throwing it in a landfill. It also allows people a chance to connect with others in the community.

“Just the events in themselves have a community aspect of getting out of your house and meeting your neighbours and meeting the volunteers that I think is also a benefit,” he said.

The café is open the second Wednesday of the month from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. with about six “amazingly talented” volunteers on site with a variety of skills. Kirk said they see everything from old clothes to toasters, coffee machines and weed wackers and the team has about a 60 per cent success rate with repairing the items.

He said the response from the community has been positive, since it opened in February, and they see about 10 people come in each night it’s open.

Kirk saw the repair café trend emerge on social media, mainly in Europe and in other Canadian cities, like Toronto.

“We saw it happening elsewhere and thought it was a good idea, and when we realized we basically had everything we needed to get started we put the word out and it’s been going well ever since,” he said.

The initiative also meshed with the neighbourhood association’s goal of promoting sustainability for the community.

“It really fits in with waste diversion and keeping stuff out of the landfill and promoting repair and reuse.”

“It really fits in with waste diversion and keeping stuff out of the landfill and promoting repair and reuse,” he said.

The café accepts donations and is working to open more regularly.

“If we can get the volunteers and equipment in order, then ideally it’d be nice if we could do it more often,” said Kirk.

He said many volunteers are away on vacation so they won’t be holding an event in August but will resume in September.

tiago.resko@freepress.mb.ca