A DIY guru who co-founded repair cafes in Rugby and Coventry is campaigning for the government to require manufacturers to label appliances for their repairability.
Martin Bryant made the call for a mandatory repairability score – similar to energy efficiency ratings on white goods – during Great Big Green Week, the annual celebration of action on climate change.
The system is currently used in France, while repairability ratings will appear on smartphones and tablets in the EU from June 20.
Martin, who lives nears Coventry, says he despairs at some products’ built-in obsolescence.
He said: “Once you start taking things apart, you can see how manufacturers think about how they can sell someone another one within two years.
“An example of something we can’t fix is electric toothbrushes. They’re very reliable, but the manufacturers weld the battery in. The batteries are always the first thing to go.”
Martin helped to found the Rugby Repair Cafe in 2019 at St Andrew’s Church, before it moved last year to Rugby Eco Hub at the top of Bath Street. It has grown from holding one session a month to two, with an average of 10 repairers per session, getting through around 40 repairs at a time.
The Coventry branch, now located in the Central Library, was set up in 2022. Memorable repairs have included a couple of cuckoo clocks and a life-sized animatronic Elvis head.
Martin says he sees his purpose as ‘to educate as well as fix,’ enabling people to become more discerning consumers, and more aware of how things work.
He said: “My pleasure comes in converting people. I want to help them understand that they can do repairs themselves and keep stuff out of landfill.”
Some of his repairers, he notes, are people who originally came to the cafe admitting they hadn’t tried to mend a broken item, before he built their DIY confidence by showing them how it’s done.
“The last thing you should do is just bin it – try and get it working again,” he said. “There is someone out there who wants what you’ve got.”
And to avoid impulse purchases of items which might only be used once or twice, he suggests ‘tool libraries’ like the one at Rugby EcoHub.
“Borrow it, use it a few times, and you’ll have much more knowledge about what you want. You won’t spend your money on something that takes up valuable space and never gets used again.”
Martin says he would like to see more repair cafes being established: “All you need is one person and a room,” he said.
