Reduce, reuse, recycle – but first repair!
This post is inspired by a series of podcasts by The Story of Stuff called “The Good Stuff”. Banning plastic bags, an 8 year old fighting KFC or how to reduce your waste at home are all nice topics but the newest issue of the podcast is what has most drawn me to listening. According to Annie Leonard and her team fixing is the new buying. “That’s the manifesto of the growing movement to make our Stuff repairable rather than disposable. And some people are going beyond repairing their Stuff to making their own. In this episode, Annie talks to a couple of high-tech entrepreneurs about the importance of the fourth R: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – and Repair.”
Ifixit.org is a meeting point for this kind of people. They say about themselves: “We are all teaching each other: how to fix, how to share, and how to be better people.” On the page you’ll find manuals on how to fix things from toasters to Iphones.
What comes first, however, is a bigger task than rewiring our cameras and laptops: it’s rewiriring our brains. Many of us have to learn again that you don’t have to buy a new item everytime something is broken. Broken is not opposite of new, it’s the opposite of fixed.
Happy repairing everyone!
WOW! Rahel…you have done something that even my husband Steve hasn’t been able to do… you have left me speechless! I love love LOVE that site! I already reuse, recycle and repurpose everything that I can but to find somewhere that tell you how to actually fix things is amazing. I was almost to the point of signing up for (expensive) night school to learn how to mend stuff but this site is going to make a great difference to our lives. I am SOOO glad that I found this blog