OUR REPAIR CAFÉ IS BACK!

Caledon residents, it’s time again to gather your broken toasters, chipped mugs and torn pant hems!

Caledon Reduces (a busy subcommittee of ecoCaledon) will run its Repair Café, offering you the opportunity to give your household items a second life and support a circular economy in Caledon.

ecoCaledon’s Repair Café is a perfect event to celebrate simple ways to extend the life of useful items, and keep them from polluting our landfills. And there is no cost to participate! Depending on the nature of the required repair, skilled volunteers may offer to repair an item for you.

If possible we encourage you to please bring in the entire item or the supplies required: include power cords, appropriately sized batteries, handles, instruction manuals, buttons, etc. Joining ecoCaledon at this event will be several other local organizations providing education on waste reduction.

What is a Repair Café?

A Repair Café is a space where you can bring broken items and repair them yourself under the guidance of volunteers. Repair Cafés promote the philosophy of fixing and reusing items instead of throwing them away. Depending on the nature of the required repair, skilled volunteers may offer to repair an item for you.

Which items can be repaired?

This depends on the fixer volunteers who sign up for an event. We can most likely help with broken items for which you already have replacement parts or very little material is needed (i.e. mending a torn shirt or gluing a broken vase). The repair café provides some material and tools and is a great opportunity to repair things in a supportive atmosphere. Sometimes all we need is a little bit of encouragement and guidance! However, also bring items that you don’t know how to repair and we will see what we can do. 

Potential items that we can fix:

• Clothing (must be clean)

• Small appliances

• Chinaware

• Wood items

• Toys

• We also offer sharpening and rehandling of tools on certain occasions, please bring a spare handle for this repair (please check specific event flyer)

• We might also offer other special services depending on the volunteers available (always check the specific event flyer)

List of items we cannot fix:

• Items involving welding. 

• Refrigeration Equipment – Coolers, Bar Fridges, Air Conditioners, dehumidifiers, etc

• Gas powered equipment – lawn mowers, line trimmers, chain saws, etc.

• Items operating on power greater than 120 volts

• Tools and appliances from other countries operating on different currents

• Very large items (you have to be able to carry an item to our Repair Café yourself)

We do not guarantee repair for any item, and our volunteers may refuse to repair eligible items on their own discretion.

How does it work?

When visiting the Repair Café, you will be greeted by some volunteers who will assess your item and help you to find the right fixer volunteer. Please note that in case of wait time, each visitor will be helped with one item. Visitors will join the back of the queue for additional items to be fixed. When you leave, we’ll ask you to answer a couple of questions regarding your repair experience to better understand what has worked for you and where we might improve for our next event.

For more information about The Repair Café, please email info@ecocaledon.org.