The Repair Cafe Movement
Local Repair Cafes
We’re one of more than twenty Repair Cafes across Cambridgeshire, sharing tools, knowhow and resources, and helping people across the county to get their things fixed.
Together we’ve seen over 1,500 items this year, fixed 64% of them, helped to avoid 2.9 tonnes of waste and prevented 23 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Our repairers and organisers are all volunteers and repairs are free.
You can read more about the Repair Cafes at Cambridge Carbon Footprint
How it All Began
The idea of a Repair Cafe was conceived by Martine Postma who organised the first ever Repair Cafe in Amsterdam, in 2009. It was a great success and prompted Martine to start the Repair Cafe Foundation, a non-profit organisation. The Foundation provides support to groups of volunteers all over the world, helping them set up their own Repair Cafes. Now there are almost 2,500 Repair Cafes across the globe, repairing an estimated 44,000 items per month!
In Cambridge, the repair movement is supported by Cambridge Carbon Footprint.
Cambridge Carbon Footprint
You can get more information about where other Repair Cafes are running around Cambridge from the map below. You can get the full details about when the Repair Cafes will be running on the Cambridge Repair Cafes website.
The site is run by Cambridge Carbon Footprint and has lots of ideas for living more sustainably and reducing the carbon footprint of your home.
Our Local Repair Cafe Network
Try to Fix Something at Home
Clean, revive or fix something - take a look at some tips here
Check out iFixit for brilliant guides on how to fix almost everything electronic.
If you know of any useful resources for fixers, please email the details to the address in the page footer.
The High Cost of Our Throwaway Culture
When I was born (in 1956), atmospheric CO2 concentration was 314ppm, it is now 416ppm - an increase of over 30% in my lifetime!
Back in 2012, the BBC published an article about the advantages of repairing our gadgets. Ten years on, it is still highly relevant - you can read it here.
International Repair Day 2024
Celebrated on October 19th, this saw a global movement of community repair events, highlighting the importance of repair and reuse to reduce waste and promote sustainability.
Global Participation: Over 2000 events in over 40 countries took place, making it the biggest Repair Day ever.
Theme: "Repair for Everyone".
Focus: Promoting the value of fixing and encouraging people to take action to reduce waste and extend the lifespan of products.
Events: Included repair cafés, training workshops, and advocacy efforts.
Data and Reports: The Restart Project published reports exploring the rise of community repair and the data behind it.
Advocacy: The European Right to Repair campaign held a webinar to discuss the current state of right to repair regulations in Europe.
15th Anniversary: The first Repair Café, held in Amsterdam in 2009, was celebrated.