Repair and reuse are key concepts at the heart of sustainability. Pushed towards consumerism, Americans have gotten into the habit of buying new things instead of fixing broken ones. This practice is not only wasteful and expensive, it is not sustainable. SCOCO was delighted to partner with Republic Services and 511 Contra Costa to hold two very successful repair events to help reduce this trend.
Free Repair Café, April 19
The brilliant idea of a Repair Café originated with Pam Giarrizzo from Sustainable Rossmoor last year. Through our great sponsorship from Republic Services & Recycle Smart, SCOCO made Pam's dream happen at the Rossmoor retirement community. The results were joyful reconnections with treasured items.
Our talented volunteer repair coaches successfully repaired 80% of the 87 items, including small appliances, jewelry, and clothes. Of the 20% of items that were not repairable, most were given to Rapid Recycle, who picked up e-cycle items from us at the end of the event.
Event Success
- Our repair coach Stanley repaired a blue and white antique lamp for customer Jamie. The lamp, bought by Jamie’s mom in China, hadn't worked in over 50 years!
- Another repair coach not only fixed Amy's broken espresso machine but also shared a cup of espresso with her once it had been repaired.
- Thanks to repair coach Andra, who repaired a beautiful necklace in 5 minutes that had sat broken in a lady's drawer for over 3 years.
- Repair coach Fran repaired a hole in a customers' favorite sweatpants.
Kudos to all our repair coaches. Special thanks to Noah's Bagels and Rooted Coffee for keeping our customers fed and caffeinated while they waited for their turn with the repair coach. See the full photo album HERE.
Free Bike Repair, April 21
We are so thankful to our sponsor 511 Contra Costa who helped us host a free bike repair event at the Lafayette Earth Day event. Bike repairs were provided by Tasty Cycle, a sustainably focused mobile bike repair company that offers convenient home bike service, reducing the need for multiple trips to the bike shop. Together, we promoted efficient eco-transportation -- bicycles!
Event Success
Tasty Cycle owner, Willem Bosboom, had this to say: "The Lafayette Earth Day event was an overwhelming success, with nearly 30 bikes fixed in the span of 4 hours. Repairs ranged from routine dust-off and bolt checks, to in-depth tuning and troubleshooting. For our part, my "win" for the day was helping a lovely woman and her daughter who were new citizens to this country and on a budget. They had been gifted two bikes but they needed several hundred dollars of repairs and parts. Thanks to the 511CC organization, all of the parts and repairs were covered. They were so gracious and thankful, and I was happy to help someone in need. Thanks for the opportunity to contribute to the event."
You can find all kinds of great bike rebates and programs on 511 Contra Costa's website, which works to promote biking and public transportation to reduce car emissions. For more information on recycling, check out Republic Services and RecycleSmart.
Browse Culture of Repair's resource page for a huge number of repair tutorials and much more!
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