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Repair and reuse

Why Repair & Reuse

Saving carbon, materials and money – and learning new skills too!

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St Albans Fixers

Regular events to help you repair and reuse items that may otherwise be discarded.

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What can you repair?

Tips, tutorials and advice to save your stuff from the bin

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We love a bit of reuse in St Albans! Although many of us have got into the habit of throwing things away easily, producing new consumer goods often generates a lot of carbon pollution, not to mention the volume of waste, and the loss of the precious materials into un-useable refuse… Repairing one item won’t save the world, but if it becomes a habit, it can quickly add up and make a huge difference! Resources for how and where to repair your items are below, and don’t forget that we run Repair Fairs across the District, and throughout the year. Keep an eye on our events for future dates.

Why Repair & Reuse?

Repair isn’t just about saving money or the planet. There are other benefits too. Fixing things can be fun – an opportunity to learn new skills or develop existing ones. And you’ll finish with a sense of satisfaction of a job well done.

Find out more:

What can you repair?

ELECTRICALS AND GADGETS

Repair

  • The Restart Wiki contains a wealth of information, from basic theory and essential tools, to advice about specific types of device. Totally new to all this? Start with their “Scared to Repair?” page.
  • The ifixit website offers repair guides for computers, phones, tablets, cameras, and games consoles.

Reuse

Photo by Juan Encalada on Unsplash

CLOTHING

Find dozens of links for buying, selling, upcycling, recycling, and mending your clothes on our sustainable fashion page.

Need clothing repaired or altered?

  • YouTube is your friend. For a general guide to sewing, try Good Housekeeping’s YouTube playlist. Want to turn up a hem, fix a zip, or darn a sock … just ask YouTube.
  • There are several local firms who make alternations.
  • Want to learn more? Sew Enjoyable is a St Albans-based business offering sewing classes and workshops and West Herts College offers Dressmaking for Beginners.

There are several local cobblers, including the Calling Cobbler who collects and delivers locally.

Richard from Botox Bikes at St Lukes Repair Fair

BIKES

For advice, try the Cycle UK website. They offer:

Watch this practical talk on “Basic Bike Maintenance” given during SustFest21 by the Verulam Cycling Club.

If that isn’t enough to get you sorted, take your bike to one of our great local bikes shops, or use one of the local mobile cycle mechanics who come to you house and sort out your bike. For example, locally there are CycleTech, Botox Bikes, The Bike Loft in Redbourn, and more. 

Local bike shops buy and sell secondhand bikes, as well as new ones, especially kids bikes which are quickly outgrown.

If you have a street WhatsApp group, that can be a great place to find and offer bikes.

HOUSEHOLD GOODS

For repairs, again, YouTube is your friend, and is filled with repair guides.

The Recycling Centres have reuse areas where you can donate and buy household items (check the latest status with regard to COVID).

Some furniture can be re-homed through Emmaus, and you can buy from their shops.

Charity shops accept many household items.

Watch the Restart Code (1 min)

RESTART PARTIES AND REPAIR FAIRS

Follow the Facebook Group for Sustainable St Albans’ project St Albans Fixers to hear about dates of upcoming repair fairs in St Albans and Harpenden. St Albans Fixers is using the model established by the The Restart Project. Restart aims for a more sustainable relationship with our electrical and electronic devices by encouraging and enabling community-based repair. Restart is growing a global network of affiliated groups supported by an online community, a repair wiki and a “Fixometer”, which tracks CO2 emissions and waste averted. Restart is also increasingly active in lobbying for “right to repair” and design for repairability.

The Repair Shed at St Lukes Repair Fair

LOCAL REPAIR SHEDS

The Repair Shed in Dacorum is part of the Men’s Shed movement, aiming to help men aged over 50 to stay healthier and happier for longer, by making, mending and learning (though it does have younger members and women members).  Shedders work on their own project and also community projects and commissions .. so do contact them if you have a wooden something that needs fixing!

They also run a Repair Shed in Redbourn. As well as wooden repairs, they also have a Sewing Cafe which (before lockdown) was running sessions on Thursdays from 10.00 am – 12.30.  For the latest, follow them on Facebook. 

COMMIT

Sign up to Count Us In today, and make changes that matter.

When you register, tick to say you are part of the St Albans Climate Action Network, and then your steps will be counted alongside other local people.

Making things last through repairing and reusing items is one of the 16 highest impact steps you can take.

sign-up to count us in

A story behind fixing stuff in St Albans and Harpenden

On the 9th September 2019 Sustainable St Albans held an event ‘What can you fix’ at The Harpenden Arms featuring Doug Root from The Repair Shed, and Philip le Riche from the Restart Project.  

The Repair Shed in Dacorum is part of the Men’s Shed movement: the aim is to help men over 50 to stay healthier and happier for longer by making, mending and learning (though it does have younger members and women members).  Shedders work on their own project and also community project and commissions.

The Restart Project aims for a more sustainable relationship with our electrical and electronic devices by encouraging and enabling community-based repair. Our speaker, Philip has taken part as a fixer in many “Restart Parties” in London, and organised one as part of St Luke’s Upcycle and Repair Fair during SustFest19. He described his own involvement and also how Restart is growing a global network of affiliated groups supported by an online community, a repair wiki and a “Fixometer”, which tracks CO2emissions and waste averted. Restart is active in lobbying for right to repair and design for repairability.

Restart resources: