What we do

Repair Café

Repair Café

Repair cafés are springing up all over the place, Stanford in the Vale, Clanfield, Wantage, Oxford (of course) and Swindon. Now, Faringdon has its own.

What we do

Repair Café

Repair Café

Repair cafés are springing up all over the place, Stanford in the Vale, Clanfield, Wantage, Oxford (of course) and Swindon. Now, Faringdon has its own.

Reduce, Re-use, Repair & Recycle

Last Saturday, at the United Church, 14 repairers examined 31 items brought in by the public, and fixed 21 of them. This ranged from Kenwood chefs, to a Saucepan, to a toaster, to a pair of jeans and garden shears as well as a mobile phone and laptop.

Every time a repair café fixes something, Surrey University estimates we save 24Kg of Co2, mostly through not having to buy more (imported) items. With the 48Kg. of items that were repaired last Saturday in Faringdon, over 1 tonne of Co2 emissions were saved.

Their 2017 study of 13 repair cafes attempting 2,800 repairs showed there is very little wrong with half the items we might otherwise throw away. 

And yet, as a society, we throw away 155,000 tonnes per year of small electrical items alone, the second highest rate in the world. Whilst the UK has reduced home generated carbon emissions by more than 40% since 1990 (which is wonderful), the carbon we generate in other countries (by importing stuff manufactured overseas, and then throwing it away in order to buy more) has only reduced by 16%. 

We are looking for volunteer repairers, people who can ‘fix stuff’ – clothes, electrical appliances, garden machinery, clocks, furniture, woodwork, computers. If you can spare 2 hours on a Saturday every 2 months, give us a call, we want to talk to you about a fun event, that will take little of your time and where you might learn a thing or two about repairing things from others just like you.

If you have a household item you want fixed, bring it to the repair Café and we will do our best – If we can’t fix it we will tell you why and advise on what to do next – We charge nothing for repairs or advice, and only ask for voluntary donations. Did we mention tea/coffee and cake is on sale as well? Come on down!

Upcoming Repair Cafe Information

4th October from 14:00 – 16:00