Featured Story

The Repair Café Revolution:

The Rise of Repair

In the face of the ongoing cost of living crisis, and amid rising concerns about global warming, repair cafes have been springing up across the country to provide free and community-based way of saving money and combatting waste.

Repair Cafés are relaxed community gatherings where, often over tea and cakes, volunteers lend their skills to the community to repair a wide variety of possessions: from clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, to bicycles, crockery and toys. The visitors bring their broken items, and the experts mend them while passing on skills to the visitor if they would like to learn.

The movement was started by Dutch environmentalist Martine Postma who organised the first repair café in Amsterdam in 2009. It was instantly popular and in the wake of this success Martine started the Repair Café International Foundation. This non-profit organisation provides free professional support to local groups all over the world who want to set up their own Repair Cafés. It’s an idea that has since flourished with over 370 cafés currently running in the UK and over 2,500 worldwide.

Community Wood Recycling Development Manager Elizabeth Green volunteers by helping with refreshments and running the social media at her local repair café. She explains,

“It’s inspiring to see a simple idea that works all over the world. Our repair café social media feed is full of people getting things fixed not just in the UK but in California, Paris, India and Australia. It’s a global movement of people sharing their skills and putting a smile on faces in their community to build a greener future for us all”.

Participants often share how they prefer repair cafes to the conventional methods of getting things repaired through dropping an item off at a paid service and collecting it later. It’s not just a question of saving money, but a chance to find out how things work, what can be done to fix them and share stories about long-cherished items. Even when things can’t be mended, visitors are glad to know that there’s nothing more to be done and it’s time for recycling.

The social aspect of repair cafés is as important as the repairs, providing opportunities for community and connection building as well as the sharing of expertise and knowledge which has been neglected in recent decades. Since the cafés rely on an army of volunteers, often retirees but also younger people with an interest in fixing things or baking cakes, they become a base for cross generational community building. Many people attend their local event every month, enjoying tea, cake and the chance to chat.

Repair cafes help us to question our throw-away culture. Many younger people have never had the chance to learn how to fix things. Recognising that something can be repaired, often inexpensively and easily, breaks the cycle of consumerism in the UK which is the second highest contributor to e-waste in the world (the only country which generates more household and electronic waste is Norway, at nearly 37 thousand tonnes per year). Finding out that sometimes manufacturer choices have made repairing impossible can open people’s eyes to a better way of doing things, where repair and recycling are part of a lifecycle process built into the design.

Oxford Wood Recycling hosts a repair café for local group Abingdon Carbon Cutters. Managing Director Richard Snow says,

“Using our space to host a repair café is a great way to promote circular economy thinking in the community, and fits in really well with the work we do to save wood for reuse. Local people who come to have things fixed can see the potential of using reclaimed timber, and often get ideas for their next DIY project. We are delighted to be working with Abingdon Carbon Cutters – partnerships like this are key to develop a better way of doing things for our planet and our communities.”

Repairing at Oxford Wood Recycling

Network Spotlight: Roots Timber Reuse

Saving Timber and Helping the Local Community in North Kent

Roots Timber Reuse CIC is a Community Interest Company based just outside Rochester in Kent, which provides waste wood collection services for Dartford, Gravesham, the Medway area and North Kent. As well as selling wood saved from the waste stream to the local community and making bespoke wooden products, the Roots team are always on the lookout for local projects which can benefit from donations of timber.

One beneficiary is a project based at HMP Maidstone. Timber donated by Roots is used by the prisoners to create various wooden designs and projects, helping to give them a purpose and learn new skills and setting them on a path away from reoffending, so making our communities safer. The products are donated to Maidstone-based charity Making Miracles’ shop, Handmade with Love, to sell to raise money for their amazing cause.

Enterprise Manager Lee Corrigan says

“We are so proud to be involved with Making Miracles, it’s such a worthwhile charity, working to give all families the support, services and tools that they need to help them after birth trauma and baby bereavement. It’s amazing to see how much of a difference waste wood that would otherwise have been sent off in a skip can make.”

Take a look Making Miracles’ website for more information:

Roots have also donated timber to HMP Standford Hill, an open prison which prepares men for release through giving them the opportunity to work. This work experience, and the skills they develop, are key to allowing them to reintegrate into society. The prison has a reoffending rate that is four times less than the national average. The timber workshop produces a range of products, from tables to Christmas ornaments which are sold to the public at The Emporium, part of a cluster of businesses just outside the prison where the local community are welcomed, and where the men gain experience of a normal working environment. The shop has been fitted out by the men working alongside staff, using reclaimed wood. The prison’s workshop manager says of the scheme:

“The men who work for us are passionate about what they do. We have varying levels of experience and some join us with virtually no wood skills to start. To see them blossom is a joy and the pride they have when they have created something makes my job worthwhile.”

Another example of Roots’ support for the local community came when cable reels collected from a terminal by the River Thames were donated to St Margaret’s Infant School in Rainham. A teacher from the school said

“I think I can speak for the school that these have already been put to good use in the pre-school and infant school by all the kids in the woodland work shop… So a really big thank you to Roots Timber Reuse CIC”

Roots also make regular donations to Second Chance Animal Rescue, an animal sanctuary in Kent. The wood is used to make shelters and enclosures, and to build fencing to keep the animals secure.

Changing Lives

Sanija’s Story

Sanija joined Roots Timber Reuse in 2021 through the government-backed Kickstart scheme. When she started she had very little workplace-based experience and was keen to develop her carpentry skills. Initially, she helped with the processing of the wood brought back to the yard from collections, including de-nailing and sorting.

As her confidence and skills grew, she moved into the workshop making products for sale, and started dealing with customers in the wood store. This opportunity to gain experience alongside the Community Wood Recycling training programmes has allowed Roots to offer Sanija a permanent job at the end of her Kickstart placement, and she is now a very valued member of the collection team and carpenter in the workshop. She will continue to develop her career throughout her time at Roots, collecting wood from sites and turning it into high-quality furniture.

Sanija says

“I have really enjoyed my time at Roots Timber. I feel like I fit in well, and it’s a good environment to learn new skills in so I am picking up everything quickly. I like being able to work in a calm environment and learn new skills without feeling under pressure to do everything correctly the first time.”

Lee Corrigan says

“Sanija is doing amazingly well within all areas of the project. She has now obtained her CSCS card with us and is now a very valued member of staff.

You can learn more about Roots Timber Reuse on their website:

Makers’ Showcase

Wood is a wonderful material for craft, DIY and construction, and our staff, volunteers and customers never cease to inspire us with their creativity and skill. That’s why this month we’re introducing our Maker’s Showcase to highlight some of our favourite projects, and hopefully inspire you as well. If you’ve used wood from a Community Wood Recycling enterprise on a project you’re proud of, please get in touch!

Mid Sussex Wood Recycling

Shepherd’s Hut

A shepherd’s hut is a small mobile dwelling with a single multipurpose room, often with a stove for cooking and heat, and a bed. As the name suggests, these were first used in 14th century England and France as accommodations for shepherds to use during the lambing season and while tending to their flocks in remote pastures, but nowadays they’re more often used for camping.

A customer used reclaimed timber from Mid Sussex Wood Recycling, as well as some salvaged oak windows, to turn a trailer into this beautiful mobile hut.

Photo credit Bee Menzies

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Want to get involved?

There are all kinds of ways to support our work while getting a great deal. If you work at a business which creates a lot of wood waste, you can use our wood waste collection service. If you’re interested in timber, wooden products, or volunteering, get in touch with your local enterprise to find out more.