UWE Bristol’s new repair café will launch on Wednesday 11th, from 12.15 – 1.45pm at the School of Engineering. Students, staff, and members of the public are invited to come along to the sessions with their broken items to get them fixed by a team of student and community repair volunteers, supported by technicians.
These items can include electricals and small appliances, clothes, and anything else that can be glued, soldered, or stitched. (There won’t be any capacity to fix tablets, laptops, or mobile phones, though Fix My Crack, which runs a pop-up on campus will be able to help with those). Repair Cafes are all about skill sharing and community, so people are encouraged to get involved and ask questions.
People looking to have their items fixed will be asked to have the registered at the “check-in” desk. This is to help keep a record of how much waste is saved from landfill, and to calculate the carbon footprint where relevant data is available. The data will feed into the Open Repair Alliance data, which is used by researchers, policy makers, manufacturers and other stakeholders to get a better understanding of the repair economy on a national and international level.
Once the items are checked in, people can take a seat in the waiting area until it’s their turn. They are welcome to bring lunch, as long as it’s kept away from the work area!
The repair café will run every 2nd Wednesday of the month 12.15 – 1.45pm at the School of Engineering.
Upcoming dates are:
- 11 October
- 8 November 2023
- 13 December 2023
- 10 January 2024
- 14 February 2024
- 13 March 2024
- 10 April 2024
This is a voluntary service and all repairs are done at people’s own discretion, so there is no guarantee that the item will be fixed.
Students and community partners from the wider Bristol Repair Café network are invited to get involved as repair volunteers. They can email kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk for more information and to register their interest, or just drop in on the day of the session at 11.45am.