The Repair Shop That is Fixing Our Throwaway Culture

The impulse for most of us is to throw something away, even if it means we have to buy a new one for more money, as it is often easier than finding a store that fixes it, taking it there, and then going out later and picking it up. , all with the possibility of it breaking again in the future.

But residents of a Glasgow neighborhood are taking on that important responsibility.

After a repair and repair shop was opened in the Govanhill neighborhood, hundreds of residents began bringing in broken electronics and clothing for repair, resisting the temptation to get rid of the problem by going to Amazon and getting a new one.

The store is called Remadeand seeks to change the way Britain consumes.

A team of technicians, general repairers and tailors work, not for charity, but as part of what BBC described as a thriving business that fixes every conceivable gadget, appliances, lawn machines, clothing, jewelry, and even Christmas decorations.

In addition to repairing broken items, Remade also works to find new items in the home as a second-hand point of sale, as well as to connect laptops or other unnecessary Internet-connected devices with homes that lack them.

Up to now have supplied 1,000 computers to people after receiving donations from Glasgow City Council.

The BBC spoke to a regular customer who said he had a watershed moment when an extension cord he owned stopped working.

“My immediate response was, well that sucks, I guess I’ll go to an online retailer like Amazon and buy another one,” he said. “So I thought, wait, there is absolutely no need to do that, I know this place is open at the end of the street.”

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It is not easy these days to carry that thought to the end.

But it’s the right thing to do for the planet in a sense, as old electronics are contributing hugely to non-degradable waste from landfills.

In addition, it is not only the burden of transporting, storing and dumping e-waste in a landfill, but also the emissions that come from producing its replacement.

Computers, phones and tablets, for example, need microchips that rely on lithium to produce, which is a rare earth mineral that is expensive, both in terms of dollars and CO2 emissions, to extract.

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Fortunately, it’s not just GNN who knows this, and the Remade staff has grown to eleven employees to keep up with the demand from Scots taking on a mission to fix their old stuff.

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