Mark Phillips, Author at Unbroken Solutions

10 and 20 years on …

Mark Phillips News, Opinion March 23, 2023 Leave a reply

This year, 2023, marks the 10th anniversary of the Restart Project and Hackney Fixers. It is also the 20th anniversary of iFixit. Groups that have been battling for decades (literally) to give us all a right to repair and the capability to do it.

In 2003, Kyle Wiens and Luke Soules found themselves with a broken iBook G3. Their attempts to repair it led to what is now iFixit. iFixit was actually born PB FixIt after the preeminent Mac notebook of the day: PowerBook. Today iFixit offer online repairs guides for lots of different products. They offer spares and the all important tool kits. A special mention goes out to their security drivers allowing you to access product that manufacturers make difficult to open!! In October 2013, iFixit Europe was born with Stuttgart in Germany as a central European location, which I visited in October 2019.

Since 2015, they’ve worked to support Right to Repair laws, with partners like USPIRG and partners in Europe from the Right to Repair Europe movement.

Restart Project and Hackney Fixers

The Restart Project started in 2013. Although based in London their reach is much wider with Restart groups and parties across the UK, in Europe and further afield. They collaborate with other groups, particularly in Europe to advocate for our Right to Repair.

Ugo Vallauri and Nathan Proctor – Restart Project and US PIRG

The Hackney Fixers, promote electrical and electronic repair in Hackney as an alternative to growing mountains of waste and consumption and work closely with the Restart Project. Like many communities repair groups they hold local events to help people repair their things. Many of the original founders are still volunteering.

Images from Hackney Fixers repair event at Woodberry Down Community Primary School, London in March 2023.

Happy Anniversaries

All of these groups are battling against waste by making better use of things. They support communities with real solutions. Solutions that we need to adopt, adapt and accelerate. Keep supporting them!

share and repair gathering

Mark Phillips Uncategorized March 7, 2023 Leave a reply

On 3 March 2023, Circular Communities Scotland hosted a Share and Repair Gathering at Made in Stirling. The event brought together communities repair groups, library of things and reuse centres from across Scotland. Also present were guest speakers from Repair Cafe Wales, Benthyg and the Restart Project.

The All Day Event was Organised by Emma Erwin, Share and Repair Coordinator for Circular Communities Scotland. It provided an opportunity to network and meet colleagues. Several breakout sessions were held to share good practice and to workshop ideas to improve impact and reduce waste.

Participants ranged from repair cafes, library of things and tool libraries, and Mens’ sheds. Even though Scotland provides some central government funding for both repair and libraries of things (and reuse centres), through the Share & Repair Network. Although the challenges of building a sustainable network and solutions remain. There is no one simple solution. Instead a range of solutions including- pop-up repair cafes, mobile repair and libraries, permanent facilities and the like were discussed and ideas to improve engagement and participation considered.

As part of the event, a pop-up exhibition of images from unbroken.solutions were provided to highlight the impact of our things and some potential solutions to our growing waste problems.

time to step up

Mark Phillips Opinion January 3, 2023 Leave a reply

Limited legislation has been passed to provide our Right to Repair, but there is still much more we can do. We can all take better care of our things. Make them last longer. We can learn to repair them, or find someone who can.

We already have lots of potential solutions. Community repair groups like Repair Cafe’s and the Restart Project can help us make things last longer, but ultimately we need to build much more capability.

In the short term our local Council’s and Waste Authorities can help make a real difference.
Some already do, but they can all do more.

Councils could enable more access to unused shops for community repair groups to use (like Share and Repair in Bath, Re:Make in Newport or the Fixing Factory in Camden).

They can also help with consumer awareness and education. They can help shift the culture from recycling (which is wasteful) to reuse and repair. Adding facilities to HWRCs (like the Fixing Factory in Brent). They can work in partnership with repair groups, charities and local independent repairers.

All the areas highlighted in the diagram above are opportunities for local authorities to help make more of a difference.

Exhibition: Islington Climate centre

Mark Phillips Uncategorized November 21, 2022 Leave a reply

*unbroken.solutions* exhibition opened in the **Islington Climate Centre**, in Angel Central, London in November 2022. The exhibition covers the impact of our e-waste and a range of solutions that can be adopted or adapted.

As part of the opening events a panel discussion was held with Fiona Dear (co-director of the Restart Project and Dermot Jones (from the charity Possible and project leader of the Camden Fixing Factory).

There is a wrote up for the panel discussions here.

The Islington Climate Centre are holding a number of sustainability and repair related events whilst the exhibition is installed. If you are interested in visiting, check out their website for dates and times.

The exhibition will be installed until 17 December 2022. The plan is to tour the exhibition to other locations in the UK during 2023. If interested please contact via the contact form.

Want a quick perspective on the problem? Try this video clip from UN Environmental Program.

Second ‘Fixing Factory’ in London

Mark Phillips Events, News October 28, 2022 9 Comments

The second Fixing Factory was opened by the mayor in Camden.

The Restart Project in partnership with climate charity Possible, Ready Tech Go, West London Waste Authority, and Mer IT, and with National Lottery Community Funding is creating new ‘Fixing Factories’ in London. For more information see the dedicated Fixing Factory website.

Camden Fixing Factory was officially opened after Camden Mayor, Nasim Ali, cut the ribbon. There were also a number of other local politicians plus representatives from a number of local stakeholders and community groups. In addiction to the opening of the Queen’s Crescent Fixing Factory, the local community was also invited to take part in some hands-on fixing.

*The final touches to the signage at Camden Fixing Factory*

The aim is for these to become a ‘blueprint’ for Fixing Factories around the country, emulating the success of Kierrätyskeskus in Finland.

At the launch event there were demonstrations from Mer-IT of how to open your laptop, change hard drives, memory cards and batteries.

*Mer-IT explaining the insides of a laptop and how to upgrade parts, extending its life.*

Whilst the main goal is to make electronics last longer, to prevent unnecessary e-waste and the huge amount of carbon emissions involved in the production and transport of new devices, such facilities also provide wider community benefits – they help increase high street activity, create local community events, training and potential job opportunities, improve local environmental performance and help with the cost of living crisis.

*Sian Berry AM (London Assembly Member – Greens) and Dermot Jones (Camden Fixing Factory in conversation*

you can hear more about the Camden and Brent Fixing Factories are the Restarters Podcast.

FixFest 2022

Mark Phillips Events, News October 14, 2022 2 Comments

International FixFest was held in Brussels from 30 September to 2 October 2022. Delegates from around the world met in on-line and in person at Les Ateliers des Tanneurs to strengthen the community repair movement, share best practice and articulate demands for more repairable products.

It was organised by The Restart Project, in close collaboration with Belgian partners Repair Together and Repair & Share. I photographed the events throughout the weekend, including the protest outside Apple.

To find out more about FixFest 2022, see their Press Release

Preparing to protest outside Apple, Brussels

Nathan Proctor, US PIRG explaining the importance of repair, and why its needed

Panel discussion with delegates from Uganda, Argentina, Scotland and India

A manual of how to run Repair Cafes in schools (Germany)

Hands on – Team Repair session, developed by students from Imperial College, London

A mobile repair cafe, hosted an event for the public. Matthew repairing an iron.

The future is Fixing Factories or Share and Repair centres to build local capability

Further Photographs, images and captions are here

Ethical Photography Festival

Mark Phillips Events, News August 17, 2022 Leave a reply

The Festival of Ethical Photography was born in 2010 from an idea of the nonprofit organization Gruppo Fotografico Progetto Immagine, based in Lodi, Italy, with the intention of focusing on ethical content of great relevance, bringing the general public closer to social issues.

With the Restart Project we entered unbroken.solutions : Repair is Essential in the NGO Open Call and have been shortlisted for NONPROFIT WORLD 2022. The shortlist of twelve projects features many amazing projects by photographers working for some great non-profits doing essential work.

This Festival is an opportunity to showcase those projects alongside wider ethical photography and, this year, World Press Photo. The annual World Press Photo is the world’s most prestigious international contest for photojournalism.

From our perspective this is a great opportunity to showcase the importance of repair in a more sustainable world. We have the tools, we have many solutions, we just need to act.

The one-month long Festival takes place in Lodi, Italy from 24 September to 23 October.

Every town needs one of these …

Mark Phillips News, Opinion August 16, 2022 1 Comment

Bath Share and Repair

Whilst typical Repair Cafés make a major contribution and help many people, their low frequency can create barriers. The lack of a permanent location can also present challenges storing tools, materials and spare parts. The logical solution would be to have community repair operating several days a week in an established location. One that is also able to run repair events and provide more extensive repair services or share tools via a Library of Things.

Bath Share and Repair opened the doors to the Share and Repair Shop in the centre of Bath. The first location was on Broad Street and had an incredible response, raising awareness of sharing and repairing in Bath. In August 2021 they moved to 3 York Buildings, George Street, which is now the new home for the Bath Library of Things and a place to run even bookable repair sessions.

Given all the empty shops in our high streets, this is an opportunity to create something that supports and builds the community. In doing so it also helps rescue waste and address some of the cost of living challenges. It is a win-win-win-win … so why are local councils and town centres not encouraging this??

Culture of Repair

Mark Phillips News, Opinion July 29, 2022 Leave a reply

Throughout this project, I have endeavoured to identify some of the key issues and potential solutions to address our waste. In discussions with many people, even those reasonably aware of environmental issues, there is a lack of knowledge about the real impact of our consumption and what we can all do about it. That is why **unbroken.solutions** focusses on *solutions* that others can adopt or adapt to suit their needs.

But ultimately, we need to create, *or re-create*, a culture of repair. One where design takes account of the need to rebuild, to reuse and to recycle, so waste is minimised. One where repair and its value is understood. One where repair resources are readily available and accessible. One where to repair, is to care.

So, it was great to connect with Vita at the Culture of Repair. Based in the Bay Area, California, their mission is simply: That Repair be an actionable and pervasive cultural value.

They focus on bringing repair to the classroom, to educate the next generation. Their efforts are currently looking to integrate Repair into maker programs in schools and educational non-profits, supporting community repair events, advocating for repair at the state and local levels, and, as always, promoting repair as a social value.

The Culture of Repair Project works exclusively in The East Bay and is currently concentrating on initiatives in Oakland and Berkeley, CA. However, their site contains lots of ideas and resources, for educators, for repair groups and for the general public, everywhere.

For those interested check the link here: Resources and Worldwide Initiatives.

Resource lists are provided to help people new to thinking about Repair begin to find material meaningful to their lines of inquiry. The more we learn the more we can make an impact.

Report for Microsoft confirms the benefits of Repair

Mark Phillips News, Opinion May 5, 2022 Leave a reply

An independent repo rt, commissioned by Microsoft confirms that repairing devices reduces waste and climate emissions.

The study compared replacement versus factory or authorised repair for different Microsoft products. The product included Surface Pros, Surface Book and Laptop Studio.

The study found that, compared to device replacement, all forms of repair offer significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and waste reduction benefits. (For the devices studied, repairing can yield up to a 92% reduction in potential waste and emissions.)

It also found that design has significant potential to reduce carbon and waste impacts. Design for repair helps repair and reduces harmful impacts.

Finally, it highlighted that transportation logistics can play in contributing to overall GHG emissions associated with repair services. “To further reduce waste and GHG emissions, Microsoft is advised to take steps to expand repair locations and capabilities across more devices and to promote mail-to repair services“.

Manufacturers need to do more to enable repair.

Author Archives: Mark Phillips