Care and Repair

Repair Cafés – Fix, Learn and Reduce Waste

Repair Cafés are popping up everywhere, with nearly 30 locations across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Part of a global movement, they are on a mission to help cut waste, build repair skills, and bring communities together.

How It Works:

Skilled volunteers come together to fix broken items for free.
Enjoy a cup of tea while you learn repair skills.
If it can be fixed, everyone wins—including the planet!

Read more about Repair Cafés by volunteer repairer, 'Mr. Glue'.

Local Repair Cafés:

Nottingham Fixers are changing the mindset from "chuck it" to "fix it".
Transition Crich (Amber Valley) combined their Repair Café with an actual café, offering refreshments and tips on where to go for specialist repairs, or recycling options.
Transition Belper (Amber Valley) runs a repair café alongside a green meet-up, helping to draw the community together as well as fix things.
Transition Chesterfield started one of the first repair cafés in 2016, with regular monthly sessions and tips on DIY fixes and do’s and don’ts when visiting a café.
Beeston Repair Café (pictured) was inspired by the BBC’s Repair Shop and has volunteers who fix furniture, bikes, lamps, clothes, baskets, toasters, computers, printers and more.
Teversal (Ashfield) is among the latest communities to launch a repair café, setting up its own version of the Repair Shop.

Find a Repair Café Near You or start one with help from the UK’s Community Repair Network.

Electronics

For electronics repair and sustainability, check out the Restart Project, which is “making electronics work for people, for the planet, and for longer.” Electronics have a high carbon footprint so a focus on repairing them has a big impact.

E-waste is a growing global crisis, with electrical waste increasing five times faster than it is being recycled. Every 14th October marks International E-Waste Day, urging us to retrieve, recycle, and revive!

Have you got old cables and electronics collecting dust? They contain valuable copper and rare metals that can be recovered. Join the e-waste hunt – find anything with a plug, battery, or cable you no longer need.

Use this cable guide to identify and recycle those mystery wires in your drawers and discover what to do with them.