Solo Resource Recovery (Solo) has proudly donated a trailer to the local Repair Café that is hosted by Shedding Community Workshop Inc every Saturday from 1.30 to 4.30pm, at 18 Prince Street in Mullumbimby. The newly donated trailer will be used to assist in the pick-up of salvaged building materials, and large-scale donations of equipment and machinery.
Diverting precious resources from landfill, taking care of our belongings and connecting with community is at the ethos of The Repair Café Mullumbimby. The Repair Café is an inclusive and safe environment, where community can be supported by experienced educators, who will assist in the repair of personal goods. Broken bikes, furniture, appliances, clothes, and other household treasures can be taken to The Repair Café for a second chance in life.
The Repair Café Mullumbimby, is part of an international network and organisation www.repaircafe.org which has 2812 registered branches worldwide. The right to repair movement has been gaining increasing support and there are now 64 registered Repair Cafés in Australia.
Repair Cafés represent free community gatherings focused on collaborative repair activities. These gatherings provide access to tools and materials for a wide range of repairs, spanning clothing, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, toys, and more. Knowledgeable volunteers with expertise in various areas are on hand to assist visitors with their repairs.
Participants bring broken items from their homes and work alongside these experts at the Repair Café, fostering a learning environment. For those without items to fix, there’s an opportunity to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea, lend a hand with someone else’s repair, or find inspiration at the reading table stocked with books on repairs and do-it-yourself (DIY) projects.
Sophie Wilksch is the director and founder of Shedding Community Workshop Inc and is incredibly passionate about upskilling and upcycling. Sophie and a whole crew of dedicated volunteers, have assisted hundreds of people from across the Northern Rivers region (and beyond), in the skills and confidence to get on the tools.
“We have discovered that when we invite our community to get ‘hands-on’ with power tools and salvaged waste materials, we empower them to create and discover real tangible outcomes. As a result, we now support communities far and wide, seeking to replicate and share our salvage, recovery and repair services.” – Sophie Wilksch
The Repair Café movement has evolved into a global endeavour aimed at preserving repair knowledge within society and promoting products that are more easily repairable. The concept of the Repair Café originated from the vision of Martine Postma, who has actively championed sustainability at a grassroots level in Amsterdam since 2007.
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