Mixing circular purpose with a fun, social event! At the Restarters Fixing Parties you can bring broken small electronics with you, and the staff and volunteer fixers help you to fix it – for free.

A record 54m tonnes of “e-waste” was generated worldwide in 2019. In Norway, consumers enjoy staying up to date with recent technological developments, resulting in a high replacement rate of products – making Norway one of the worlds biggest producers of e-waste per capita. In fact, norwegians are the biggest consumers of electronics in the world. Although recycling rates of e-waste is high in Norway, the “stock / hoarding” culture in Norway is also high. A major barrier to achieving a circular economy is ensuring slowing the resource loop through reuse of product – including repairing, remanufacturing and refurbishing electronical products. Yet, there is a low reuse culture within electronics in Norway. For most Norwegians, “buying a new one” is often the easiest and cheapest option when something is broken. This also leads to large greenhouse gas emissions, and poor working conditions in mines and factories. And on top of that, we're starting to run out of more critical metals. Barriers to changing this behaviour include a lack of knowledge on how to best cycle unwanted products, how to repair electronics, how to responsibly dispose of electronics and a lack of trust in value estimates (quality of product, sanitary concerns) to enable cycling.

Restarters Norway was started in the autumn of 2016 with help from Norway Makers, Naturvernforbundet, Deichmanske bibliotek and Institutt for Informatikk at Oslo University.. In June 2017, they received the Oslo Environmental Award and were nominated for the Nordic Council's Environmental Award. Restart Norway is the local branch of The Restart Project - a people-powered platform for change, helping demand emerge for more sustainable, better electronics. By working with communities, schools, and companies to value and use electronics longer - and documenting the barriers to doing so - the Restart Project aims to drive a global movement to move beyond the throw-away economy. The organisation takes local action to prevent electronic waste through hands-on, learning events where it helps people fix their own electronics.

At the Restarters Fixing Parties you can bring broken small electronics and fix them with the guidance and help from fixer volunteers. The Restarters staff and volunteer fixers are young – and the Fixing parties are also aimed at the young population. The aim is hence to ensure that electronics do not end up in stock or as e-waste, but also to create a shift in mentality in the young population on how we consume and use electronics through throwing fun and social events.