Originally published at: We’re taking repair back to Parliament - The Restart Project
The UK is the second highest producer of electronic waste per capita in the world. And four in five Brits want the government to do more to support repair. Yet the UK is falling behind other European countries and the USA by failing to introduce pro-repair policies.
When we first launched the Repair & Reuse Declaration alongside our community repair allies from across the UK, we wanted to encourage our political leaders to make repair and reuse more accessible for everybody.
MPs are starting to listen
So we’re delighted to announce that more than 50 MPs have now signed the Declaration, endorsing key policies that could save households money, reduce our environmental impact and shift us towards a more sustainable economy. Even more exciting is that many of these supporting MPs have written to DEFRA or asked questions in parliament about repair and reuse, including one that mentioned the Declaration itself.
These are huge milestones and significant steps towards putting repair and reuse on the political agenda. And now is a critical time to build on this momentum.
Right now, the government’s Circular Economy Taskforce is setting priorities for a new strategy that could reshape our waste management system.
While the Taskforce missed its first opportunity to address the e-waste elephant in the room, we were pleased to be able to feed into the strategy at a roundtable with Mary Creagh, the Government Minister overseeing this work. And we’ve recently had confirmation that the Taskforce will now develop a roadmap for e-waste, including measures to support repair and reuse.
This is a really promising development. The flurry of MPs showing their support for the declaration and its principles has surely helped keep this on the agenda.
Now it’s crucial that we keep up this drumbeat to ensure ambition doesn’t get watered down as the strategy is developed.
So we’re bringing repair back to Parliament
Last year, we brought the repair movement to Parliament and were thrilled to welcome 30 MPs to our Repair Café. They met representatives from their local community repair groups and learned more about the pro-reuse and repair policies that we know would benefit people and planet.
This year we want to build on that success by reaching even more MPs, building more support for the Declaration and urging the Circular Economy Taskforce to include ambitious Right to Repair measures in their recommendations to the government.
On the 11th of June, we’ll arrive with our toolkits to show them first hand why repair and reuse matter and how the right policies can make it more accessible for all of us.
Once again, we’ve teamed up with our partners in the Community Repair Network to make sure that communities across the UK are represented, along with refurbished tech seller Back Market to bring in the voice of business too. We’re delighted to have the support of Suez and Green Alliance too.
We’ve invited all MPs to drop by. But if you’re based in the UK, we need your help to make sure your local MP comes along. As a constituent, you have real influence when it comes to your MP’s choices.
Please consider asking your MP to attend, using our simple tool here: