Repair café
Volunteers with fixing skills meet neighbours monthly to repair broken things together, for free.
Start small
Book a community hall for one Saturday morning, recruit 3 to 5 handy neighbours, and adopt the Repair Café International starter rules. Cost: under $200 for tea, signage and basic tools. Time: about 4 weeks to organise the first session.
The problem
Household goods are thrown away when they could be fixed, because repair skills, tools and spare parts have drifted out of everyday life, adding to waste and emissions.
Where it fits
Thrives with a regular free venue, a pool of skilled volunteers (often retirees), simple house rules on liability, and a host group such as a neighbourhood house, environment centre or tool library. Needs basic tools, access to repair information and spare parts.
The principle underneath
Bring skill and need into the same room on a regular rhythm, and teach while fixing, so repair spreads as a shared practice rather than a paid service.
Who to call
Repair Café International Foundation (Amsterdam); Repair Café Aotearoa New Zealand; local repair cafés on the Landscape such as Castlemaine, Canberra and Glen Eira.
Watch out for
Volunteer burnout and an ageing volunteer base; insurance gaps; safety with electrical items; spare parts; visitors treating it as a free repair shop rather than learning alongside.
Where it comes from
Started by Martine Postma in Amsterdam on 18 October 2009; the Repair Café International Foundation (2011) shares a free starter kit and RepairMonitor data tool. Openly shared.
Where it's worked
Amsterdam, Netherlands, then worldwide · 2009 to present
First Repair Café held 18 October 2009; the movement has grown to over 2,500 Repair Cafés worldwide.
DocumentedSource
67 Repair Cafés in 8 countries · 2019
13,609 repairs logged in RepairMonitor; 63% successful (85% for non-electrical items, 53% for electrical). Lack of spare parts the main cause of failure.
DocumentedSource
13 Repair Cafés, United Kingdom · Study published 2019
University of Surrey master's study of nearly 3,000 repairs estimated each successful repair prevents up to 24 kg of CO2 emissions.
DocumentedSource
317 Repair Cafés in 10 countries · Survey 2016
Second global survey (Centre for Sustainable Design): 63% average repair success, about 10 volunteers and 29 visitors per session; volunteer recruitment and insurance the main barriers.
DocumentedSource
Aotearoa New Zealand · 2013 to 2024
From the first café at Diamond Harbour school in 2013 to a national network supporting 75+ Repair Cafés by April 2024.
DocumentedSourceRepair Café Aotearoa New Zealand on the Landscape
Where it failed
About a third of repairs fail, mostly from missing spare parts or products that can't be opened; electrical items succeed only about half the time. Many cafés struggle to recruit volunteers and visitors, and most run without public or product liability insurance or formal risk assessments.