Repair Café Uckfield had the great honour of being invited by Baroness Parminter, The Restart Project and Back Market to send a representative Margaret Dodé-Angel to the House of Lords along with others from the Community Repair Network, Suez and the Green Alliance to a Parliamentary Repair Café.
32 MPs visited the Parliamentary Repair Café, it was an opportunity to remind MPs about the importance of repair, both in communities across the UK and in business to save waste, reduce emissions and save money. Whilst highlighting the additional value that repair cafés offer though building connection and sharing valuable skills.
There were talks from Back Market, a unicorn company with a valuation of $5.7billion who is proving the refurbished consumer electronics market is a growing and valuable addition to the economy and the movement towards a more circular one.
The restart project spoke about how MPs can address the structural barriers holding back repair and reuse. Their Repair & Reuse Declaration offers concrete policy solutions that could make it much easier and cheaper to fix everyday products, which is one of the main frustrations at the over 700 repair cafés across the country. Over 400 community groups, business have already signed the declaration, along with 64 MPs since the event.
One of the MPs who spoke was Circular Economies minister Mary Creagh CBE who set up the Circular Economy Task Force talking about the importance of things being made to last and promising a road map for circular electricals by spring next year. The Taskforce has been billed as a once in a generation opportunity to shift how we consume, use and eventually dispose of our products.
‘It was amazing to hear Mary Creagh CBE MP (Minister for Nature) talk about the work she is doing around developing a circular economy. One thing she said stuck with me was there is no such thing as away! All the waste produced has to go somewhere doesn’t it.’ MD-A
Another attendee was Jeremy Vine, a champion for the repair network. He told the story of his very expensive purchase of a less than 3 year old Segway that was deemed irreparable by the manufacturer and destined for landfill. He was then introduced to a local London Repair Cafe who worked for hours to attempt to replace the faulty battery..sadly to no avail. Many of the repairers in the room were all thinking the same and wanted to give fixing the item a go and it was taken away by a guest recycling and refurbishment company for one last go at the repair.
Find out more about the declaration here:
https://therestartproject.org/campaigns/repair-reuse-declaration
Sign it & encourage your MP to sign it here: https://repairreusedeclaration.uk/