The Dutch do know how to share a dinner bill, but they also know how to share and repair. Our great expanding movement started properly in The Netherlands where it is now everywhere and normalised. As one Dutch tourist said when he dropped into the George Street Shop to have a look “We have all this”. It includes second hand shops and is so common it does not need explaining, like our amazing charity shop system, which is the envy of many countries.
So “Going Dutch” is our dream. Many environmental projects have floundered over the decades, but ours is different as it is really popular! There is public demand and we use grants and donations to fund what we do. We just have to be organised and plan carefully to make it happen, together. We don’t want to be just another ‘project’ but to become part of the common day to day of our culture. This would enable people to think and act, share and repair before buying and throwing away, a chance to do their extra bit for the environment and feel good about it.
Share and Repair is one of the most comprehensive groups working in this part of the reuse sector. Our specific aim is to make Repair Cafes, Libraries of Things (LoTs) and HomeKIT easily accessible to anyone living in Bath or the surrounding area, to normalise it in our area.
We are one of hundreds of independent groups across the UK, all slightly different, as part of a loose network, all learning from each other. There are over 700 Repair Cafes in England alone. We work closely with our peers and are supporting a bid for funding to establish a more formal network in England and to bring that together with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish networks.
Nearby in Bristol there are 3 LoTs and several Repair Cafes, and there is a Children’s Scrapstore and Sofa Project. Wales are well organised, with a team supported by their government! They have over 100 Repair Cafes and 28 LoTs. London LoT so far has 22 local locker LoTs which offer the most popular 45 items, but without personal contact.
Although lockers are helpful to make borrowing more accessible, like we will be launching in Mulberry Park, Combe Down, the personal touch with repairers and Front of House at our base is fundamental. We find that this garners enthusiastic support and enables us to help local residents to gain any skills involved to use our items. We are about relationships, community, volunteering, skills’ training as well as environmental action, all rolled into one.
So, it all comes down to the details to make all this work, together. Step by step improving our offer of items, procedures, premises, money etc. But also each conversation is a chance to invite and encourage people to make the choice to borrow not buy, repair not throw away and to become involved in our passion to save money, space and make a positive environmental impact.
Volunteer Newsletter article written by Chris.
