WHAT IS A REPAIR CAFE?
If you have a broken toaster, it's easy to throw it away and buy a new one. But what if that cycle could be broken?
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At the Tucson Repair Cafe, we fix items for free, and teach people in the community how to fix those items. Our goal is to reduce landfill waste and extend the lifespan of what people already have.
OUR MISSION
In 2018, 292.4 million metric tons of trash were produced in the United States, which is 4.9 pounds of trash per person per day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Of that waste, 146.1 metric tons ended up in landfills.
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Making up parts of those numbers are items that could've been saved - chairs with a wobbly leg, a toaster with a lever that doesn't stay down, a shirt with a hole in it. In 2016, electronic waste produced worldwide made up 44.7 million metric tons.
Because of the barriers to repairing items, or because of how much easier it is to buy something new, fixable items end up in the trash.
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Repair cafes began in Amsterdam in 2009, rejecting throwaway culture and giving consumers another option to fix their items. It is a part of the Right to Repair movement, or the idea that if you own something, you should be able to repair it.
At the Tucson Repair Cafe, we want to help reduce local landfill waste and give items new life for free. We also want to teach people to fix their items, restoring the desire and ability to fix what we have.