Inner-west repair café to launch at Sustainable Living Festival
Don’t throw out that broken bicycle or toasted toaster, because a group in Melbourne want to help you fix it.
The Inner-West Repair Cafe launches later this month as part of the Sustainable Living Festival.
Inner-West Repair Cafe organiser and Permablitz Collective member Michelle Fisher
Organiser and Permablitz Collective member Michelle Fisher said the cafe aimed to help the environment by reducing the number of items being thrown away.
“People can bring their broken items to be repaired rather than thrown out into landfill,” she said.
The first repair cafe was set up in Amsterdam in 2009 and the movement has since spread worldwide with locally organised groups in more than 20 countries including Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, Romania and India.
Repair cafes already exist in Sydney, Albury-Wodonga and Mullumbimby, but Ms Fisher’s group will be the first repair cafe to establish in Melbourne.
Melbourne Repair Cafe (Inner West) launch
Repairers happy to share what they know
Ms Fisher said the group, which will meet in a cafe in Seddon in Melbourne’s inner-west, was not a drop-off fix-it service; rather it was a place where people could learn new skills.
“People are losing the ability to repair things themselves,” she said.
“There are those that do know how to repair things and are happy to share that knowledge.”
So far the group has attracted people with skills in electronics, woodworking, computers, textiles and bicycle repair.
“We’ve got a few all-rounders who just like to play with things and take them apart and troubleshoot,” Ms Fisher said.
“We’ve set up a meet-up group where people register and say what skills they have.”
The launch will be held at the Sustainable Living Festival’s Living Future Festival in Yarraville on February 21.
This article originally appeared on abc.net.au
