Over the past few months I’ve given a talk at Riverfront Theatre in Newport with …. and held an exhibition and talk with WeFlock at No.1 Church Lane. Much of the project focus now is getting the work and the message ‘out there’, pushing the need to act rather than more photography.
I am fortunate to meet many like-minded people. It is clear that they and the wider public want a better right to repair and more repair capability. We already have so many solutions from the UK, Europe and elsewhere, we just need the will to act. However, our government, our councils and the waste authorities are still slow to respond.
Thankfully, organisations like The Restart Project and Repair Cafe’s continue to support their local communities. They also continue to get media attention, which hopefully will create the ‘nudge’ needed. As a recent example West Central London Fixers – recently helped presenter Jeremy Vine get his Segway fixed, so instead of ‘skipping it’ and buying a new one for around £700, he was able to replace the batteries for around £70.
The message is a consistent one – a significant amount of our broken electronics can be fixed. We know this from surveys done at HWRCs which found nearly half of all items ‘skipped’ were either not broken or could be easily fixed. Yet, many councils simply promote ‘recycling’, which does little more than crush the items and then push them into an inefficient and costly material recovery process. Such a waste!
It is worth highlighting some that do support repair, my own council promote all repair events across the county, as do Medway, Lambeth, Cambridge, Maidstone, Warwick, and Derbyshire, to name a few. This is something that is simple and really costs them nothing to do. It begs the question why are all council not doing this?? If your council isn’t, tell them you think they should. Act now.
Then, there are initiatives, like the Repair Finder (run by Frank Schoops at Transition Marlow). This aims to link the public with the network of commercial repairers across the country. Making it easier to find someone to repair your stuff.
There are also resources for education to help the next generation learn about repair. Team Repair was founded by a team of Design Engineers from Imperial College London. who are on a mission to increase STEM uptake and tackle the e-waste crisis, using the magic of repair. Restart at School offers a 10 week enrichment programme run by teachers and educators, with support and materials provided by the Restart Project.
And if you haven’t seen the scale of the challenges, I recommend watching Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, the new Netflix documentary.
So, despite the failure of institutions, there is a lot going on and the movement is growing. As a result, I’ve updated the Resources page, adding content and improving layout to make it a little easier to find the links.
In support of Repair Day (19th October), the exhibition will highlight the importance of repair and reuse and the need for a better Right to Repair. For more information and events taking place on international Repair Day (19th October) see https://openrepair.org
There will also be copies of the unbroken.solutions photobook to view and copies of the ‘act now‘ zine.
2023 has been a busy year for the right to repair movement and unbroken.solutions, here is a summary of the project and the groups I have been working with over the past few years.
January – I presented on repair at The Photographers Gallery (TPG) with the Restart Project as part of the TPG’s Small File Photo Festival
March – the project exhibited in Stirling for Circular Communities Scotland’s Share and Repair event, bringing together sharing libraries, repair and reuse communities from across Scotland.
Book and zine were published
The unbroken.solutions book and act now zine were completed, working with Struktur Design and Pure Print, and were published in June.
July– project exhibited at Sustainability Day in Hackney with Hackney Fixers.
September – project exhibited and act now zines distributed to all delegates at Fixfest 2023, in Cardiff. Fixfest brought together over one hundred community repairers and activists from across the UK. It wa an opportunity to share good practice and build capability. Fixfest was also used as a platform to relaunch the Manchester Declaration as a wider and more comprehensive Repair and Reuse Declaration.
The Declaration asks UK legislators and decision-makers at all levels to support repair and reuse to thrive, by requesting the UK:
– Make repair more affordable, through tax reductions and repair vouchers. – Expand the UK’s right to repair regulations to cover all consumer products, to strengthen design standards and remove barriers to repair for everyone. – Introduce a repair index to help the public choose more repairable and durable products. – Introduce requirements and targets for reuse and repair to be prioritised over recycling and provide investment to make this a reality. This should be a key part of amended extended producer responsibility rules. – Support a new generation of repairers through repair training, accreditation and apprenticeships. For more information and to encourage your MP to sign, see https://repairreusedeclaration.uk
Act Now Campaign
During the summer and early autumn the campaign to engage 260 UK councils, plus devolved government and UK government departments started. It asked council to provide better support for repair and reuse. The campaign sent out copies of the book, plus zine and a covering letter. Follow up emails continue to be sent to encourage more support.
The response has been a little muted (unsurprising, given the financial challenges many councils currently have) but largely positive. Some councils have actively engaged and some are including ideas in their future proposals. After some chasing, even DEFRA replied.
In October – attended BOP Bristol and Impressions Gallery, Bradford book fairs with the Photobook Club Collective.
Dead Spaces
Started research and FOI requests on empty (dead) council spaces that could be put to use to support repair and reuse. This built on the work of Sian Berry’s team in London looking at ‘Dead Spaces‘, addressing London council owned spaces that were not in use or vacant. The FOI extended that research, with a sample across the whole UK. Based on this research, it is estimated that there are around 1200 council owned properties in the UK that are empty and highly likely to be suitable for setting up sharing and repairing centres. This is an opportunity that requires little money to get started.
Visited Cambridge Repair Cafe and exhibited in Cambridge on International Repair Day.
Photographed a Right to Repair Europe (R2REurope) event at EU Parliament in Brussels, aimed at encouraging the parliament to support an improved right to repair directive. Parliament voted positively, but the Council is now in the process of watering down the proposals. Still, it is progress.
Europe has made some progress on repair in 2023 with Batteries directive: User-replaceable batteries required in all portable devices and light transportation vehicles in 2027, and Ecodesign for smartphones & tablets: Parts, tools, and documentation required for all smartphones and tablets by 2025.
In the USA in Colorado: First-ever agricultural bill supporting farmers rights to repair. In Minnesota: Broadest Right to Repair bill yet—this covers basically anything with a chip. In California: requires that electronics and appliances over $100 have parts, tools and manuals available for 7 years and in Maine: Owners & independent mechanics have access to auto telematics. Great progress for USPIRG, iFixit and the other US campaigners.
Building Capability
Also in October, visited RENEW reuse hub, run by Suez, in Manchester. Although early days, this is a major effort to re-direct goods from recycling skips, and to reuse and repair, so they last longer.
Providing facilities like this, plus share and Repair centres is going to be key to deliver any meaningful improvement in our reuse and repair capability. Sadly, the current government waste policy, strategy and proposals will do little to impact this unless there is a proper plan, rather than a the current ‘word salad’.
November– exhibited and spoke at Dead Spaces event with Sian Berry and Climate Emergency Centres in London.
December – unbroken.solutions book was added to SPP network case studies. These case studies provide examples of more sustainable photobook production. The unbroken. solutions photobook was also added to resources in Suez published “Solutions for Stuff”, a comprehensive solutions manual and guide for councils and some material was also provided to the New Zealand, Repair Café Aotearoa Handbook.
During the year regular visits were also made to community repair events and activities at Remake Newport, Penarth, Hackney, Portsmouth Share and Repair, Chesham, Stirling, Cambridge, and Renew in Manchester.
If you want to find out more about progress on repair and reuse and progress on the right to repair check out the Restart Project, R2R Europe and iFixit website and newsletters.
A busy 2023, here’s to more progress in 2024. Happy New Year!
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.
James Diamond, Hackney Fixers
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!
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.
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.Volunteers at opening event
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.
Despite the recent claims made, most products are still made with deliberate ‘anti-repair’ designs.
Two phones – one uses 8 simple Phillips screws. The other 2 security screws, 55 Phillips screws in 6 different sizes, a glued screen and glue strips to hold the battery.
Apart from the security screws and fixings, and glued in parts, there are other challenges. First, is access to affordable parts. Software and serialised components can cause the replacement part to not be recognised by the device and will not work. Or may have some features disabled.
Then there is the challenge of how comprehensive the self-repair program is. Apple’s repair program has only been launched, and only in the US. Samsung’s program is currently limited to a few models (Galaxy S20, S21 and Tab S7 devices).
There is a danger that such programs simply buy manufacturers more time. Then continue their current practices and defer the adoption of real right to repair. It is good news that manufacturers are, at last, collaborating with repair experts at iFixit. But advocates for repair are not yet out of a job.
So, whilst, the proposed moves are a step in the right direction, it’s a small step. Without continued pressure little real progress will be made.
