Don’t throw it out, get it fixed at Napier’s Repair Cafe!

Do you have an old transistor radio lying around the house that doesn’t work but you can’t quite throw out?  Or an old bicycle languishing in the shed?  What about that favourite necklace you broke at the last party you went to? Or is it those pesky socks the wife won’t darn and you don’t know how to?

Don’t procrastinate any more. Head along to Napier’s Repair Cafe  –  a pop up event that runs the last Saturday of every month (including today 27 August) from 11.30am – 2.30pm at Asher Hall behind St Paul’s Presbyterian Church.  There skilled volunteers will fix your item while you watch, and in the case of something like darning socks, even show you how to do it for yourself. All you have to do is sample the local coffee and cake on offer and give a koha for a successful repair.

Set up by Napier woman Helen Howard, the Repair Cafe is modelled on similar cafes in other centres in New Zealand, and internationally. Helen even has a handbook from Repair Cafe Aotearoa New Zealand she has followed to set up the Napier Cafe.

“It is all about building awareness around treasuring items you have in your own home, rather than throwing them away into the landfill,” says Helen, who is a strong advocate of a zero waste environment

“Often we have something broken and we don’t know what do with it,” she says.  “This is a feel good community event and it’s really satisfying repairing things, and skill sharing too.”

With funding help from Keep Napier Beautiful and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and support from Repair Cafe Aotearoa NZ, Re-Source and The Hastings Environment Centre, Napier’s Repair Cafe has got off to a flying start. At the first event in June, 34 volunteers (not including people who provided baking for the cafe) successfully repaired 34 items and the approximate replacement value of those items would have been $2080.

In July 45 people bought in 70 items for repair and 49 of those were successfully repaired

with an approximate replacement value of those items estimated at $2270.

Items that have been repaired range from electronic toys, to plug in hotplates, soft furnishings, fixes to heavy duty fluorescent work clothes and fixing scooters, bicycles and jewellery.

Hawke’s Bay cyclist and widower Alan White had a favourite cycling tee-shirt in need of a small repair.  “It was ideal to be able to pop in to the cafe,” he says. “It was a simple thing to get fixed but it saved me chucking it out.”

Helen Howard initially advertised for volunteers to work at the Repair Cafe and quickly had a list of skilled people willing to give up a Saturday morning once a month, but she could do with some more back-up electricians and bike experts.

The cafe also runs a fun tamariki zone with toys and colouring in for children. A Sustainable Library has books that people can take and return the following month or pass on. Topics focus on climate change, sustainable living, repair, veganism, environmentalism, zero waste and minimalism.

Entry to the cafe is free, but a koha is encouraged for tea, coffee (supplied by Switch Coffee Roasters), baking or any successful repair.

Repair Cafe dates for 2022 are:  Sat Aug 27th, Sat Sep 24th, Sat Oct 15th (International Repair Day) and Sat Nov 26th.  The cafe will then take a break and re-launch the last Saturday of every month from Feb 2023.

See Napier Repair Cafe on Facebook @sustainablenapier 

Contact Helen for more information or to offer skills: sustainablenapier@gmail.com  

See more about Repair Cafes in New Zealand at: https://www.repaircafeaotearoa.co.nz/

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air