Originally published at: The biggest International Repair Day yet? - The Restart Project
Repair Day is on October 21st and we want Repair for Everyone. While we, as a collective, have made a huge difference to the public perception and resurgence of repair, it’s still not accessible to everyone. Why? Well, With manufacturers preventing repair of their products for profit and a lack of incentive by the government to support repair, fixing is often either too difficult, costly or time-consuming for people. By repairing and reusing your things, you can save money and the environment. We’re calling for a real Right to Repair, so that repairing your stuff can be an option for everyone.
Do you have an event planned to mark the day? Add it to our map using this form so that we can see what the repair community is doing across the globe!
You can access the toolkit for promoting the event here, including materials in multiple languages.
So how are we going to achieve this?
The new Repair and Reuse Declaration
To mark the day, on October 21st, The Restart Project will be launching the Repair and Reuse Declaration. Along with the UK Community Repair Network and other national organisations, we’ve been developing a renewed set of asks from our government. Watch this space for more, and get ready to ask your MP to sign and share it far and wide.
Around the world
There are currently more than 1000 events listed on the ORA Repair Day map – and that’s not all of them! The European Right to Repair campaign is strong as ever, and this Repair Day fixers all over Europe are going to be writing to their politicians, holding actions, and holding community events.
Over 70 repair events are already registered in the UK, hundreds of repair events will be taking place in France, and Repair Café Denmark will be awarding the Danish Repairability Prize on the day. There are events listed in Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Italy, and we expect to see more pop up in the coming weeks!
In the Netherlands, they’re especially encouraging children to get involved in repair with the premiere of a new kids drama about repair. Over 30 cinemas will be screening the show and holding repair cafes so that children can get an intro to fixing in real time.
In Germany, the petition for a nationwide repair bonus will be presented to the Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke. And FixFirst are holding a human vs. AI fixing battle in Berlin.
In Belgium, Repair & Share and Repair Together are highlighting repair in schools, organisations, youth movements, village squares, the heart of cities, libraries, and more. In Wallonia, a repairathon will be held to attempt to fix as many items as possible on the day.
Les 100tinel Fix Club in Porto-Novo, Benin will be holding events in schools to try and fix their resources. And in Uganda, Community Creativity for Development will be running a two day training course for a group of 15 women, who will showcase what they’ve learned at an event for Repair Day. You can help fund this event here, if you are able to donate.
Our friends at Repair Cafe Hudson Valley are busy holding repair cafes up in the North-East of the US, and there are events scattered around the country. In Mexico, Estrategia Circular MX are hosting a circular economy webinar, and Revuelta Club are holding their first repair event in Querétaro, as part of the Club de Reparadores network.
And if you can’t reach any of these events in person, Cherwell Collective are running an online event to reach people in communities who don’t have access to a local repair group. You can engage with fixing online using the Global Fixers Discord server where repairers at international events will be answering your questions about fixing.
And there are plenty of ways that everyone can celebrate at home too. These include:
- repair an item that you’ve had lying around for a while, if you need help you can find a local community repair event here;
- share your experience and post a photo/video of your repair on social media using the hashtag #RepairDay #RepairforEveryone. This could be a positive experience of repair, or a frustrating one, anything that tells the story of why you want more support for repair for everyone;
- encourage your family and friends to do the same;
- pass on your knowledge by helping someone else with a repair;
- or support a local repair business.
[Photos courtesy of Mark A Phillips, and Mathew Lubari]
