Reduce, reuse, recycle... and the neglected "R": repair

There are lots of words starting with R that describe sustainable behaviours: reduce, reuse, recycle, regift, re-home, repair... Society has shifted towards making some of these actions more convenient. Reusable bags are available in most major stores nowadays. Most cities and towns have kerbside recycling.  Online services like Trademe and DonateNZ are great ways to re-home items so that others can reuse them. But one R seems to be lagging behind the rest: repair. Surprisingly often the cost to have something repaired is more than what you paid for it or what it would cost to replace it. Two good examples are shoes and handbags.

The other day I took a handbag back to the store I had bought it from because the metal fastener that held a strap in place had come apart. They shop assistant immediately offered to exchange it for a new bag or give me a store credit. While the offer of a new handbag was mighty tempting, I'd thought about all the resources that must have gone into making my handbag and, since it was in pretty good condition other than the broken fastener, I preferred to have it repaired. The shop assistant was obviously surprised that I wanted to have the bag fixed rather than get a new one, but she said she would see what she could do. The next day I received a phone call from the shop assistant telling me that it was going to cost more to repair my bag than what I had paid for it. The manufacturer was overseas, and she had called a local repairer, who had quoted a price in excess of what I had paid for the bag. I was disappointed, but not really surprised. When I had tried to get my previous handbag fixed last year by going direct to the repairer, the quoted price was enough to convince me to send the bag to the scrap-heap instead. (That bag was in much worse shape than the current one - it was coming apart at most of the seams and one of the straps was nearly broken from the strain of me carrying far too much around in it all the time). It's the same with shoes. The cost to replace worn-out soles can be enough to convince people that they might as well buy new shoes instead.

This pricing situation negatively affects the sustainability of people's behaviour towards broken consumer goods. Many times I've heard people say, "It's not worth getting it fixed". In purely personal dollar terms they're right. But what about when other factors are weighed in? The environmental impact of manufacturing the product, the positive economic impact on their local community from paying a tradesperson to repair the broken item, and the environmental impact of disposing of the broken thing are relevant considerations, but ones that are difficult or impossible for the owner of the broken thing to quantify, even if they turned their mind to it.

In the past, when simply replacing a broken item was not always possible, people were more resourceful and many were more skilled at fixing things themselves. Expecting everyone to become a handyperson is not realistic in the time-starved society of today. But there are still people out there who are pretty handy. If you already know someone like that, you could try to strike up a bargain with them. Maybe they'll fix your shirt that's coming apart at the seams in exchange for you baking them some muffins, or buying them a beer. Or maybe you have skills that you can trade with them. You'll fix their door hinge if they'll sew the buttons back onto your shirts. If you don't know a handyperson, maybe you can track one down through community noticeboards (for example at your local supermarket or in your community newspaper), or maybe someone you know knows someone that they can put you in touch with. If you think that there's even a slight chance that you might be able to fix it yourself, if only you knew how, try googling "How to fix [insert broken thing here]". Obviously use this within reason. If you've never fixed anything electrical before, I wouldn't recommend trying to fix your microwave based on a Youtube video some home handyperson has posted. If you don't think it's worth even trying to fix it then the next step may be to try to reuse it in some other capacity, or to rehome it. Landfill transfer centres often salvage stuff and resell it, and some small repair stores will be happy to accept broken things from you that they can potentially use for parts. I've also discovered a market for broken electrical and electronic goods on Trademe. People list broken items for $1 reserve or thereabouts, and it seems that eager handypeople snap them up to repair and resell. So, it should be a rare occasion when something is only worth throwing out.

Have you got any thoughts to add on the neglected "R", repair? Make a comment below. Handyperson  self-promotion welcome!