Developing a community and culture of repair in Toronto | Knowledge Hub | Circle Economy Foundation
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Business case
Developing a community and culture of repair in Toronto
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Repair Café Toronto is a grassroots organization that offers free repair events in communities across Toronto. This Toronto organization is one of the over 1,900 Repair Cafes around the world in the network of Repair Cafe Foundation based in Amsterdam.

Problem

Waste has become one of the most critical problems of modern times. Thanks to tremendous increase in human population and industrial production, waste generation has increased exponentially in the last decades. Due to its sheer scale, waste can no longer just be dumped or buried and forgotten. Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle are the 4Rs that will offer the solution for a waste-free future.

Solution

Repair Café Toronto is a volunteer-run community group that offers free repair events. It co-hosts events with community centres, libraries, churches, art galleries, farmers’ markets and more. It also collaborates with Toronto Tool Library who offers it part of their storefront for free community repair services on Sundays. Organizations can approach Repair Café Toronto to hold an event at their location as long as they have a suitable space that is available free of charge.

At the event, volunteer ‘fixers’ assess and fix items that visitors bring, including small appliances, computers, electronics, furniture, clothing, jewelry, toys, books, and bikes and more. If an item is not fixable, the volunteers will advise the owner on how to properly dispose of or recycle it. In some cases, unrepairable items are donated to the Repair Café so that their spare parts can be reused.

Repair Café Toronto contributes to the circular economy by:

- keeping household items in use for longer

- providing free repair services

- teaching people how to repair their own items helping other groups start a Repair Café in their community

- advocating for products to be designed for repair.

Outcome

Since its launch in 2013, Repair Café Toronto has benefited from the support of various donors including the City, and of citizens who have generously provided repair supplies, refreshments and more. Repair Café Toronto aims to change the mindset of our throwaway society and encourage people to repair broken items whenever possible instead of replacing them. It wants to see repair skills be part of the core curriculum being taught to every child in school.

Notable numbers:

- 100+ active volunteers and a mailing list of over 700 volunteers

- 83 Repair Café events delivered in the last year

- 6,050+ items diverted from landfill since 2013

- 60 – 75% repair success rate

Additional information

Photo retrieved from Repair Café Toronto website

Relevant links
Related articles

Toronto Tool Library and Sharing Depot