Repair

Repair is a great way to save money, learn new skills, and support your local repair shops and tradespeople. The concept of getting together to repair things in your community isn’t new: the first official repair café was launched 15 years ago!

Facts & Stats

  • There are over 58 officially registered repair cafes throughout Canada. Check the map and see if there’s one near you—they would be happy to help you try to fix your things for free! Can’t find one near you? Consider hosting one yourself.
  • Value retention processes like repair prevent 1.6 million tonnes of CO2e from being emitted and avoids the extraction of 470,000 tonnes of raw materials.
  • Of the $56 billion CAD that VRPs are estimated to generate annually, repair makes up $37 billion CAD of this total.
  • Repairing something instead of replacing it prevents the need for a new product to be made, preventing the creation of 80-95% of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • More and more people are participating in repair all over the world. According to the Open Repair Alliance dataset, over 200,000 repair attempts at community repair events (like repair cafés) were recorded all over the world since 2012, with over 53% of devices fixed.

Participate in International Repair Day on October 18 here!

Share & Reuse

This week, you have learned how to repair your things and reuse things as many times as possible. But what if you need to buy something new, like a push lawn mower or a drill for that project you’ve been putting off? You can avoid purchasing new things – or anything at all – by borrowing and lending with your local community.

By shifting to access over ownership (a.k.a. borrowing and lending instead of buying a new item for yourself), you can save money and reduce demand for the manufacturing of new things. Think about it – how many times would you need that drill over the next 5 years, and how much space would it take up in your home?

By choosing access over ownership, the responsibility falls to manufacturers to make longer lasting and more efficient products that are designed with repair and reuse as primary considerations. Millions of Canadians engage in the sharing economy everyday – through ride sharing apps, libraries, rental services, online music/video streaming and more – often not realizing their contribution to the circular economy.

Facts & Stats