The Restart Project Podcast

We talk a lot about the essential nature of repairing our things. But something we probably don’t talk about enough, is how important it is to maintain our gadgets, as well. You might say, “well, aren’t they one in the same?” The answer to that question is complicated. In this episode, Ugo is joined by Jérôme Denis, Director at the Centre for the Sociology of Innovation at Écoles des Mines de Paris and co-author of the book, The Care of Things: Ethics and Politics of Maintenance.  An underground practice Jérôme shares how he became so fascinated by maintenance in the first place. While he and his co-author David Pontille, were undertaking other ethnographic research it was suggested to them that they speak to the maintenance workers who looked after the subway signs that they were so interested in. After that surprise encounter, these acts of care became a new focus. They began to forge a new area of study, with many other scholars and authors which they called ‘maintenance and repair studies’. The culmination — in part — is their book. Jérôme tells us that, like many people, he used to use ‘repair’ and ‘maintenance’ almost interchangeably. As time went on though, he began to see their key differences. “What we were not at ease with was the idea of the repair of the ocean, of humanity, of climate, you know, fixing stuff in a heroic way. It’s a quite masculine way generally of seeing things, but it’s also an event. The idea that things are broken, then we will repair them, and then it’s okay. We don’t have to bother anymore since the next breakage. So this is where the main difference is: maintenance is every day and once you have maintained something, well, you still have to maintain it.” They are not the same but they are also not in opposition to each other. Instead, he believes that repair should be seen as part of broader maintenance practices. Credit: Jérôme Denis Invisible by design? One of the complexities of maintenance is the juxtaposition between its essential nature and the fact that its invisibility is part of its point. If maintenance practices are successful, hopefully, there will rarely be a breakage that warrants attention. The issue is that this means the work of maintainers often goes unnoticed and therefore, unsupported by designers, legislators, funders and more. Jérôme points out that breakdowns — like that of the Ponte Morandi bridge collapse — can be much more easily dramatised. The same applies to their subsequent repair, whereas ‘you don’t get a ribbon each time you just look at something to see if it’s still okay.’ This attention-grabbing event of breakdown, he says, also makes campaigning for a right to repair easier than asking for support for maintenance.  “Maintenance is not invisible in many places, in many poor places in rich countries and in many places in poor countries…I think it’s important to situate when and where maintenance is made or rendered invisible or neglected, or where the work of women is rendered invisible or neglected. It’s not everywhere.” We ask Jérôme if he thinks that maintenance has been rendered invisible and he says no, rather he believes that it has been neglected, in our present and in documentation on the history of science and innovation. He shares many reasons that he believes it has been so neglected, ultimately, relating back to the idea of reproductive labour — a term comprehensively explored by artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles who appears on the cover of the French version of the book. A dance of emancipation We journey through how the de-prioritisation of maintenance came as a result of modern capitalism: how consumers were sold comfort and freedom through items that ‘didn’t need to be maintained’ (though, this wasn’t true). We also talk about the dichotomy of repair, maintenance, and durability, how innovators are constantly trying to create autonomous things and materials that don’t require maintenance, and how ultimately this is an impossible feat. He points out that even when we are told that things are self-sustaining, there will always be someone who bears the brunt of maintaining them, just without the support and infrastructure to undertake the task. “It’s also an emancipation from the manufacturers and a huge industry that, in a way, tries to put you in a very specific place of a freed consumer who doesn’t have to take care of anything, but who then cannot learn from their use, who cannot learn from how things work, and who cannot, for instance, innovate from specific maintenance or repair practices.”  Jérôme explains how he sees maintenance as a dance, an ongoing interaction between thing and person. He says that maintenance requires constant adjustment, to follow the lead of your partner in a process of ‘call and response’. Through maintenance, you can in a way emancipate yourself from modern capitalism, no longer a passive consumer but a person unafraid to interact with and learn about your things. Links Read: The Care of Things: Ethics and Politics of Maintenance by Jérôme Denis and David Pontille Listen: Restart Podcast Ep. 79: eSpares wants you to clean your filters Please fill in our podcast listener survey to help us keep improving this show The post Restart Podcast Ep. 107: Maintenance: the unsung hero, with Jérôme Denis appeared first on The Restart Project.

Last year, we had the chance to do something we’ve dreamed about for a while and ran the first trial of vouchers for electrical repair in the UK. The trial was delivered by us and ReLondon, with funding from North London Waste Authority and support from Fixfirst and local councils. Over a period of 12 months, we worked with repair businesses in the seven boroughs of North London to make repair more accessible for local residents and boost the local repair economy. Now, we’re ready — and excited — to share our findings from the trial. Our trial is not the first of its kind around the world, so we were joined by Karin Huber-Heim to talk about the initiatives that paved the way for a scheme like this to happen in London. Karin is president of the Circular Economy Forum Austria and holds the City of Vienna Endowed Professorship Circular Economy & Transformative Business Models — who better to talk to about this? Charting the origins of repair vouchers Karin guided us through the story of repair vouchers in Austria, from the beginning of the scheme in Graz, to a thriving implementation in Vienna, to the now nationwide Appliance Saver Bonus. The model has proved popular around Europe, with iterations active in Germany and France also. She shared how in Vienna in particular, they built on existing repair infrastructure. Their repair business network had already been supporting the city for over 20 years by the time repair vouchers came into the picture, meaning that they had an engaged and trusted foundation of businesses to activate. It’s an idea that struck our imagination, as we found that without such a network in place in London, it was a challenge to find businesses that were up for the task and had the capacity to get involved. The Austrian scheme has undergone many iterations, reacting to fraudulent activity, government changes, and funding difficulties. Karin shared how this affected uptake of the scheme with the public but also the impact that it had on businesses. We were lucky to have seen these different ways of implementation, as well as those in other countries, to inform our own version in London. So what about the North London trial? We shared some of the key takeaways from the North London trial, including some of the aspects that made it particularly effective. These included the fact that it was: Frictionless for customers, meaning that there was a low bar to entry to partake and no financial risk up front. We included tech repair businesses, meaning that we had a larger pool of businesses involved. It was striking how few repair businesses existed for small household appliances, despite a demand for these repairs. Our report into the barriers that repair businesses face came out of our work on this scheme and covers why this is and what policy-makers can do to help. It had a significant enough discount of 50% off the cost of a repair, which Karin suggests is the threshold that removes the ‘psychological barrier’, encouraging people to use the vouchers. Cost as the main incentive for people to use the vouchers definitely rang true for us as we found that 60% of applicants cited cost saving as their motivation for using the scheme and the same percentage had an annual salary of less than £30,000. The outlook for repair vouchers in the UK and Austria Repair vouchers proved popular in our trial. In fact, it received an NPS score of 96%, meaning that the vast majority of customers would recommend it to their friends and family. And in Austria they’re popular too. We discussed how a rise in repair culture in general, thanks to community repair is only leading to more of a demand for these kinds of initiatives.  Karin says though, that repair vouchers alone are not enough for a robust repair economy, governments must support other infrastructure like community repair groups, bring back repair education and channels for budding fixers to become repair technicians, and implement policies like EPR based financing and VAT reform. She highlighted that these interventions must not be tied to any one party’s ideology so as to ensure their longevity. And its true that access to repair is a rare a bipartisan issue, we found that by looking at the popularity of the London trial and the desire for users to return to repair shops again and again. The reason that Karin is especially interested in longevity, is the impacts she has already witnessed in Austria. The scheme faced multiple interruptions and the unpredictability led to major disruptions for businesses due to dips in demand for repairs. We need continued and secure funding and political support for it to be sustainable. With the Austrian scheme set to end this year, she shared her expectation that there will be an outcry from the public for it to return. With the knowledge that visible support from citizens is essential, we both hope that long term support for repair vouchers will happen and that these kind of schemes can continue to prove their value. Links: Please fill in our podcast listener survey to help us keep improving this show Read our full publication on the North London trial Read our report on the barriers of running a repair business in North London Learn about the Circular Economy Forum Austria [Feature image by North London Waste Authority] The post Restart Podcast Ep. 106: Tracing repair vouchers from Vienna to London appeared first on The Restart Project.

With two new locations just launched in London, we catch up with Rhio and Sarah to see how Fixing Factories are thriving on our high streets.

We’re currently running a survey of our listeners. Please take a few minutes to fill it in so that we can make the content that you want to hear! Off the back of a very wet and dreary start to the year in the UK, we’re bringing memories of sunnier times to all of you. For this episode, we spoke to Clare and Frank about the repair pop-ups that they — with the help of many volunteers — ran at two festivals over the last couple of summers.  Clare Seek is the founder of Share Portsmouth (originally Repair Cafe Portsmouth) and has been running repair events since its inception in 2018. Frank Schoofs founded Marlow Repair Cafe in the same year and has since also set up the Repair Finder. All this to say, that they have plenty of experience running community repair events and in 2024, Frank decided to take one event off the beaten track — to the Cambridge Folk Festival.  When inspiration strikes Frank was pushed to act by the seemingly endless piles of sleeping bags, tents, camping chairs and more that he had been seeing left behind at festivals because he knew that surely more could be done to help this massive waste issue. He did a bit of research and found that the local Cambridge Folk Festival was already doing a fair bit of work around sustainability. So, he pitched the idea of a repair tent at the next edition and that summer, it became a reality!  “I was like, that is a cool idea. Why aren’t we doing more repair out and about because I’m always into taking things out and about and especially focusing on young people as well. I think we need our future generation to be skilled up and excited about repairing things.” Clare, inspired by Frank’s blog post on the experience, did her own research and connected with Boomtown Fair. She gathered volunteers from around 10 different repair cafes in the Hampshire network and they brought a ‘Reparium’ to the crowd of potentially 80,000 people — a lot of them between the ages of 18 and 26. These huge crowds meant that for both repair events, they saw repair rates much higher than normal. Frank estimates that out of the 14,000 or so people that visited the Cambridge Folk Festival, they managed to help a whopping 10% of them.  Turning broken soles into gateway repairs Both Frank and Clare pointed out that visibility was key to the success of these repair pop-ups. They made sure to place their sites in areas of the festival with plenty of foot traffic, relying partly on people seeing the tent and then returning at a later date when disaster (aka a broken shoe) struck. Though they were both obviously well-prepared with tools and tape, it was a make do and mend attitude that prevailed for repairs over the weekend. Rather than the usual electricals that come to many regular repair events, they said that overwhelmingly the items being brought in were clothing, airbeds, sunglasses, shoes, tents, chairs, trolleys, and a few liquid damaged phones.  We expected that it might be hard to keep people engaged with repairs with so much else going on at these festivals but what Clare realised is that when there is no other option than to repair, people will really get involved in fixing their stuff. It also helped that a lot of the repairs were really simple, providing an accessible and quick introduction to repair that she hoped would influence people’s future behaviour.  “In our culture, we’re not really told that some repairs are really simple…we’re often talking about electrical repairs and the barriers to repair, but I think in that festival context where it’s less electrical…some of this stuff is really simple and you can learn those skills and then you can keep using them.” At Restart, and in the repair community at large, we are always trying to find effective ways to reach new audiences — especially younger people. Frank shared that at regular events in Marlow, their attendees are predominantly 50+ years of age. However, at the festival, they helped younger people, families and people from all over the world, including visitors from a repair cafe in Belgium! What is most interesting perhaps is that at both festivals, almost all visitors to the repair pop-ups had not heard of a repair cafe before but absolutely loved the idea.  Clare believes the key to reaching these new audiences is about going to new people not expecting them to come to us. She has taken the same approach by recently bringing community repair events to the University of Portsmouth and connected with younger people on their level. This includes talking to them about campaigning for the Right to Repair and providing them tangible options to take action to tackle one of their biggest concerns, the climate crisis.   Tough tape and trickle down action In the same way that Frank originally inspired Clare to take community repair to new places, they both hope that listeners and organisers will be moved to do the same. They share some tips and tricks on how to get booked to repair at a festival, what the essential items are for mending and fixing on site, and how best to organise volunteers for these events. We also talk about what unusual places they might want to take repair next, including schools and workplaces. And the key takeaway for us: the volunteers loved helping out at the events and they’re in high demand. And if anyone at Glastonbury Festival is listening, get in touch! Before we go, we also wanted to give an exciting announcement. This October will be the 10th edition of International Repair Day and to celebrate, our theme will be all about how repair unites us. We’re encouraging groups worldwide to throw a celebration — a repair festival if you will — to mark the occasion. This could be as big as a multi-day event with musical performances and more while people repair, or simply your regular repair event but run in collaboration with a new community in your area (think Scouts or a lending library). We can’t wait to share more in the coming months! Links: Please fill in our podcast listener survey to help us keep improving this show Download Clare and Frank’s toolkit for running repair cafes at a festival Read Frank’s original blog post about Cambridge Folk Festival BBC: The Boomtown repairers fixing campers’ broken gear Share Portsmouth The Repair Finder [Images courtesy of Clare Seek/Share Portsmouth and Frank Schoofs/Marlow Repair Cafe] The post Restart Podcast Ep. 104: We’re ready for a repair boom at UK music festivals appeared first on The Restart Project.

As the year draws to a close, we’re grappling with what a sustainable future really looks like against a backdrop of a more and more technology-based world. We’re told that the tools that we now have at our fingertips are making our lives easier, more streamlined but this convenience comes at a cost. There are organisations thinking differently though, like the Paris-based “Citizen Science Laboratory”, Atelier 21. On this episode, we speak to founder, Cédric Carles about the low-tech, frugal, and more environmentally-friendly innovations of old that they are raising from the buried past.  Cédric had values of sustainability, repairing and shared responsibility ingrained in him from an early age. That’s why, once he started working in the design space, he was less interested in creating new, shiny things to sell people and more interested in creating products that would elevate peoples lives and be built to last. While working to develop sustainable technologies and speaking to older colleagues, he realised that some of the ‘new’ ideas that he was having actually weren’t that new at all. And in fact, there was a whole history of innovation out there that he wasn’t aware already existed. So, at COP21, he took the opportunity of having environmentally-minded people from all over the world in Paris, at his fingertips, and started having conversations with everyone. In the last ten years, the Paléo-Energétique project has collected ideas around energy, water, transportation and more. A timeline for change This collection became the Paléo-Energétique timeline that is now a partial basis for their RetroFutur Museum in Paris. Cédric shares a few examples with us of some of the forgotten but groundbreaking innovations — the “gold nuggets” — that are included on the timeline. And the timeline is constantly growing, as the RetroFutur Museum has the potential to move to new towns, every time they do so, they work with local schools and archives to augment the exhibition to the innovations that they discover in the local area. “A lot of innovation was killed by the prices of energy. What we discovered is that a lot of crisis time was a really good time for innovation…during crisis there is no coal, no fuel and it is so expensive. But when the crisis is gone…we just forget all the stuff we have done with solar energy and alternatives…It’s time to not forget anymore.” The timeline serves as a tool to not only educate but to inspire. Cédric wants participants to have an “experience with the material” and see with their own eyes what is possible. It’s an ethos echoed in other Atelier 21 projects, like Solar Soundsystem where members of the public power a soundsystem by pedalling bikes. Many efforts for change are shot down by voices saying that a sustainable transition isn’t possible but Cédric says their work proves to people that it is possible because it has already been done. Inside the RetroFutur Museum [Credit: Atelier 21 Resurrecting and regenerating Atelier 21 are not just digging up old patents but are bringing them back from the dead. One of these is the RegenBox, a machine that can recharge alkaline batteries, making them reusable. It was inspired by the inventor of modern alkaline batteries, Karl Kordesch’s original patents for recharging them. So, they began working on “re-prototyping.” What resulted was their RegenBox and RegenStations which can diagnose the energy level in your battery and then, recharge it. And the best part… they’re repairable, both their software and hardware! They’re a perfect addition to community initiatives like Fixing Factories, sharing libraries or eco hubs. The alkaline battery is so ubiquitous, that an opportunity to reuse them could attract new visitors who may not yet be interested in repair. Cédric says that there are around 40 RegenStations and 3-4,000 RegenBoxes around Europe, resulting in an estimated 100,000 batteries saved just this year. And next year, with the help of communities like ours, he wants to up that number to one million. The “treasure trove” continues to grow The timeline contains many, many innovations which you can read about and explore. This also means that there is plenty of knowledge for Atelier 21 to draw on and “re-innovate” on. Right now, they are exploring work extending the lives of solar panels which notoriously get retired before their time, leading to e-waste. And Cédric shares that next year, they are launching Paleo-Water and will be collecting and sharing information on lost patents around water systems. Do you have a lost invention that you would like to add to the timeline? Let Cédric know! Links Atelier 21 Explore the Paléo-Energétique timeline RetroFutur Museum Solar Soundsystem RegenBox Featured image: Karl Kordesch’s patent from 1960 [U.S. patent 2,960,558: Public Domain] Episode uses: Video Game Death Sound Effect by harrietniamh [License: Attribution 4.0] and Power Up 8 Bit.wav by Mrthenoronha [License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0] The post Restart Podcast Ep. 103: Resurrecting our low-tech and sustainable past, with Cédric Carles from Atelier 21 appeared first on The Restart Project.

International Repair Day 2025 is almost here! And a lot of our focus this year has been on software obsolescence. It’s been top of mind due to the unprecedented impact that the end of Windows 10 will have on around half of all Windows users. In early October, with the end of 10 on the horizon, we sat down with Nathan Proctor from US PIRG, Monique Szpak, seasoned laptop tinkerer and volunteer with Community TechAid and Repair Cafe Lambeth, and our own Tech Lead, Neil Mather to get the lowdown on what the resistance has been to this huge obsolescence event that is now upon us.  The Windows 10 issue is out of this world On October 14th — ironically on International E-Waste Day and only four days before International Repair Day — Microsoft will end free and automatic support for Windows 10. Nathan and Neil both share the shocking statistics of what the fallout will be. The stand out figure is a potential “1.6 billion pounds of e-waste” generated — if all the laptops impacted by the end of 10 were stacked on top of each other, it would reach beyond the moon.  So, this issue is huge, but repairers around the world have been trying to do something about it. We mark the small gains that we’ve made and Microsoft’s concessions, but it isn’t enough to solve the problem. Nathan tells us about the open letter that US PIRG recently sent to the company, which was signed by over 500 organisations around the world. Campaigners in Europe are also urging the European Commission to introduce Ecodesign legislation that would require software updates of at least 15 years for laptops, and more. Campaigning can and has worked in the past and Nathan tells us about one of their previous campaigns which ultimately contributed to Google promising 10 years of minimum support for Chromebooks as a requirement.  Our ‘End of 10’ toolkit Apart from campaigning, we’re also taking action on the ground. We speak to Neil about the toolkit that Restart put together to help repair groups tackle the end of Windows 10 within their local communities. It’s a resource that was developed with 20 different groups around the world, drawing on the collective experience of our amazing community.  Neil and Monique both volunteer at their local repair cafes and share with us how tackling Windows 10 has been going so far. They point out that the end of 10 actually isn’t widely common knowledge yet, meaning that sometimes people come in with a laptop that they think is broken but it’s actually Windows 10 or 11 that’s the problem. While fixing up these machines, they’re also having to educate and raise awareness. And they expect that once October 14th passes, and more and more software starts to become out of date, there will be an uptick in the number of people bringing in these machines.  Is Linux the solution? There are a few solutions to the end of 10 that the repair community particularly love, one of these is to replace the Windows OS with Linux. But while Linux is popular with “techies”, as Monique says, the average person isn’t too familiar. So this wonderful solution does require more than just installing it on a laptop. Neil and Monique both take us through their working style for helping people who come into their repair cafes move over to Linux. The key, they point out, is communication and time. Our toolkit supports fixers in talking through attendees’ options and needs. Then, it takes time, maybe a dummy laptop with Linux already installed, and probably a few sessions to get them comfortable with the OS — only then can be installed on their device. All in all, it’s a great option and we’re lucky that it’s possible to install a different OS on Windows 10 devices. But as Nathan points out, this solution isn’t workable for this vast issue — for the estimated 400 million laptops that will be left unsecure from the end of 10. We’ll have to work with a combination of all of the solutions we discussed. This means support in local communities to help people better understand their devices. It means infrastructure in place to continue this support through the life of their device. And it means campaigning for legislation that combats premature obsolescence which is especially important for devices that aren’t laptops — for e-bikes, medical devices and more — which cannot have a new OS installed on them. Links: Explore our global map of over 2000 events for Repair Day! US PIRG: Our open letter to Microsoft on the end of support for Windows 10 R2R Europe: EU urged to act on Software Obsolescence as hundreds of organizations demand long-term Windows 10 support The Restart Project: The end of Windows 10: A toolkit for community repair groups Restarters Wiki: Windows 10 End of Life Nathan Proctor: Why the end of support for Windows 10 is uniquely troubling [Images courtesy of Right to Repair Europe and Mark A Phillips] The post Restart Podcast Ep. 102: We’re saying no to Microsoft’s wasteful end of Windows 10 appeared first on The Restart Project.

After a bit of a hiatus, our podcast is back and we were honoured to be joined by Mark Miodownik for a chat about researching and communicating around repair. Mark is not only an author, engineer, Professor of Materials and Society at UCL, and a director of the Institute of Making but also the newly appointed Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement with Science — meaning that he’s really good at turning people who think they are apathetic about the material things (less in the Madonna sense and more like Aluminium honeycombs and Nano Fibres, to name a couple) in our world, into enthusiasts.  We need to talk about engineering Mark shares with us how he got into public engagement around engineering and repair. It turns out that it’s out of love and a personal passion for the subject! He believes that engineering should be as revered as much as art, music, and movies because it is, and has long been, a really integral part of human culture. We learn that a key part of effectively communicating about repair,  in Mark’s opinion, is to play on your own enthusiasm about the subject, finding commonality, and an in-road to make the topic just as exciting to them — one of the ways that he does this is by talking about his bike. An example of this is the Materials Library at the IoM, making it a tactile and real experience that people can engage with. And as much as it’s important to get the general public interested in repair, we need to also be communicating its impact to funders and the government. One way that we can do that, Mark says, is by talking about its social value and the impact it has to strengthen our communities, and on our mental and physical health.  Big findings from the Big Repair Project Recently, Mark was part of a team that undertook a wide-spanning piece of research called the Big Repair Project, where they looked into repair habits in the UK, what influences them, and most importantly what is stopping people from repairing their stuff. When it came to barriers to repair, some of the main ones included cost, how long repair takes, the societal norms of consumer culture, apathy of the general public towards saving their stuff, and discouragement from manufacturers.  “By and large people don’t enjoy throwing things away. It’s not something that gives them a kick, mostly people just want it to work and they actually appreciate the objects…we found that they felt like they had no choice, because buying new is the cheapest option in many cases.” He shares some other major findings from the study, including what surprised him. It turns out that people expect their small electricals to last an average of five years and bigger white goods to last for ten — and this simply isn’t happening. So next they thought, how can we make this the reality? That’s what their next study is about.  A washing machine for life? Mark shares his vision of a world where a washing machine was so repairable, so long-lasting that it could be passed down from generation to generation. So in the upcoming study, they’re going to find out what would be needed to make that happen. Part of it, he says, comes from utilising the technology that is now starting to be built-in to our white goods — technology that to most of us currently seems a bit unnecessary. But they are wondering if solutions like prompts for maintenance could prolong the life of these machines significantly.  “They’re making a machine that starts out as rocks in one part of the world, gets made into steel, gets made into all sorts of copper windings for the motor, adds plastics and rubbers, and then it ends up in your hands. And they do all of that for 250 quid. That’s quite a remarkable engineering achievement. But the truth is…by having it so finely attuned to the price point, they’re prone to failure.” It’s a difficult balance. Under our current system, manufacturers struggle to produce these machines while also hitting profit margins and encouraging new sales. He shares a few possible solutions, ones that would likely be very effective. But ultimately, it’s an issue that is bigger than any one company. Instead, it requires an overhaul of how governments and policy makers think about our economy and more sustainable models.  The self-repairing smartphone We couldn’t end our conversation without bringing up the concept of self-repairing materials. So, Mark gives us a run-down of what progress has been made so far including self-repairing cement and paint, that are already being used in our day-to-day lives. The idea, he says, is that these materials will be able to mimic the repair mechanisms inside our own bodies, monitoring for when work is needed and acting on that without our intervention.  It’s a necessary technology to ensure that we become more resilient against the effects of climate change, keeping infrastructure like bridges and roads in good condition. But it’s also a technology that could be applied to our devices. Though at the moment we haven’t quite gotten there, Mark explains how he sees ‘animated’ self-repairing phones could be in our future.  Links: Read: Big Repair Project: using citizen science to better understand the factors affecting household maintenance and repair of home appliances and electronics across the UK Explore: Institute of Making’s Materials Library [Photos courtesy of Mark B and Marianne Cornelissen-Kuyt licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0] The post Restart Podcast Ep. 101: Engineering our repairable future, with Mark Miodownik appeared first on The Restart Project.

Spring has sprung in London and so have new repair initiatives! We sat down with Shelini and Fiona to have a chat about two exciting projects that have just kicked off in the capital. Another high street gets treated to a Fixing Factory First, Shelini told us about the launch of the brand new Hackney Fixing Factory that happened in April. As we waved goodbye to the historic Hackney Fixers group, a more permanent space has taken root right off the high street. Friends and project partners joined us to cut the ribbon and celebrate our third Fixing Factory. We spoke about some of the fresh ideas that we’re bringing to this space and the activities that are going on including: community repair events (à la Restart Parties), Fixperience Workshops, a Future Fixers course, and a Repair Club. We’re also planning to open two more sites in the near future, one in Haringey and one somewhere else in London. If you have a suggestion for where we should go next or want to get involved as a volunteer – get in touch! Hackney Councillor Sarah Young cuts the ribbon at Hackney Fixing Factory. Photo: Mark A Phillips The first repair voucher scheme in the UK Then, Fiona introduced us to the repair voucher scheme that we are running across North London, in partnership with North London Waste Authority, ReLondon and FixFirst. The trial follows examples in Austria, France and Germany and is the first of it’s kind in the UK. In practice, it means that residents in North London can register for a voucher which gets them 50% (up to £50) off a repair at a participating repair business. Launching the scheme at Neil Electrics. Photo: North London Waste Authority Repair vouchers totally resonate with what we’re asking for in the Repair and Reuse Declaration. Fiona talks us through how we hope that the scheme will help push for policy change on a big scale in the UK. And the public are in support of it too! Our initial data shows that ~48% of those that signed up for a voucher would not have considered repairing their item otherwise, signalling that this could have huge ripple effects on reducing e-waste. We also spoke about the challenges to repair businesses and how this scheme could hopefully help bolster the repair economy in London. We’re still looking for repair businesses to participate in this trial, so if this sounds interesting you can learn more here. Links: See what’s going on at Hackney and Camden Fixing Factories Sign up for our repair voucher scheme   Learn the results of our voucher scheme Our trial voucher scheme ended in 2026 and helped over 1,000 people access more affordable repair. See the full results and what we learned here.   [Feature image courtesy of Mark A Phillips] The post Restart Radio: London gets a new Fixing Factory and repair vouchers appeared first on The Restart Project.

We can’t believe that we’ve already reached episode 100 of The Restart Podcast! We launched this show a decade ago to explore the world of repair, connect with others in the space, and think about how our work fits into the wider world of sustainability and circularity, autonomy and ownership, and education and accessibility. And we’re so proud of what we’ve managed to produce and the conversations that we’ve had over the years.  To mark the occasion, we wanted to speak to a few notable people that haven’t featured on the podcast yet. These are people who you might have thought would’ve been in the first handful of episodes. But right now, is actually a perfect time to reflect together and think about what comes next for the repair movement. In this episode, Ugo got back behind the mic to connect with contemporaries and old friends. He spoke to Martine Postma, Kyle Wiens, Cristina Ganapini, and Mathew Lubari about their unique takes on repair.  A pioneer of community repair Martine shares with us her memories of setting up the first repair cafe back in Amsterdam in 2009 and how community repair has blossomed since then. From those humble beginnings, there are now over 3,500 repair cafes around the world. And that number doesn’t even include other community repair initiatives like Restart Parties, Fixit Clinics and more – showing just how far the roots of her idea have spread over time. We reflected on their 15 year anniversary event last autumn and what the future holds – or at least Martine hopes – for community repair.  From a broken laptop to the destination for DIY repair Kyle had some interesting takeaways from last year’s Open Repair Alliance report that Ugo was eager to dive into. What resulted were some recommendations for how community repair events can really thrive as solutions to people’s everyday needs and integrate into our existing ways of living. They also speak about the end of iFixit! But don’t worry, it’s not happening anytime soon. Rather, as we continue to make gains towards achieving the Right to Repair, they ponder where iFixit would sit in a world where manufacturers make repair manuals and spare parts readily available. It turns out, there will always be a place for conveners of experience and knowledge – something that we know a lot about! Gaining Right to Repair the visibility it needs Next, Ugo catches up with Cristina about Right to Repair policy, mainly in Europe, over the last decade. She shares her feelings as someone who is campaigning day in day out for a real Right to Repair. One thing to be particularly proud of, she says, is the Right to Repair Directive and she’s also hopeful about new changes to battery regulation coming into force in 2027. They discuss how although we have a long way to go and new legislation doesn’t include all electricals yet, it’s a clear sign that repair is on agenda and has new visibility that was not the case a decade – or even five years – ago.  Repair under challenging circumstances Finally, Ugo speaks to our only return guest of the episode, Mathew from Community Creativity 4 Development. He shares with us how their work has evolved over the last few years and the work that they are doing to involve new communities and improve real people’s lives on the ground through repair. It’s inspiring work that has not only caught our eye but the eye of those in surrounding countries. Mathew shares his recent collaborations with repairers in Kenya and posits a new idea for a Right to Repair convening forum in Africa that will help them spread their love for repair even further.  A big thank you And that’s episode 100! We want to give a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved in the podcast (and over 140 episodes of Restart Radio) in the last ten years. That includes all of our past guests, Optonoise, Cassini Sound, the team at Resonance FM, all of the Restart volunteers who have hosted radio takeovers, and of course, Dave Pickering who produced this show for many years. We’re excited to see what comes next and hope that you will keep listening and learning with us. Links: Repair Cafe International iFixit Right to Repair Europe Community Creativity 4 Development   [“Screwdriver, Ratchet, A.wav” by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org; Photo of Cristina by Mark A Phillips] The post Restart Podcast Ep. 100: Trailblazers of repair appeared first on The Restart Project.

A transcript of this podcast is available Sitting nestled in the mountains of France sits a small building buzzing with activity. Backdropped by the snowy Alps, signs on the building read “where borders meet”, “welcome” and “repair station”, a perfect summary of the Low-tech & Refugees project run by EKO!. In this episode, we speak to Marjolaine Bert, founder of EKO! about how repair and ingenuity can give vulnerable people life saving solutions, learning from each other, and building empathy between communities.  The Low-tech & Refugees project aims to help refugees, migrants and exiled people with low-tech solutions to basic needs like food, water, shelter, communication materials and so on. Through a combination of trainings and workshops, volunteers and beneficiaries work together to repair, upcycle and share skills. Marjolaine has brought this work to hotspots like the Mória refugee camp in Lesbos, Marseilles, and now her hometown of Briançon where she is helping those making the treacherous crossing across the French-Italian border.  So why low-tech? We asked Marjolaine about the reasoning behind the low-tech approach that they take. She says that low-tech solutions come with the territory for their work. For the most part, the people who arrive at EKO! have very little means and from this, springs creativity and a make-do-and-mend attitude. Marjolaine shares some examples of ingenious inventions that they have made over the years. This includes hand warmers made out of discarded baby food pouches, portable lamps made from empty disposable water bottles, and tent insulation made from life jackets.  And while this approach is a necessity when you have such little means and materials to work with, it doesn’t mean that it should only be used in these scenarios. We talk about the need for those who have the power to choose a more sustainable way of life to do so. Especially, as the reason many displaced people are in this position is due to our changing climate.  A place for collaboration and building empathy Marjolaine runs us through the impressive number of activities going on every week at EKO! including bike fixing, clothes mending, woodworking and beekeeping! In their workshops, EKO! have an approach to teaching that hits close to home for those of us familiar with Restart Parties. Marjolaine explains that these sessions don’t have a ‘teacher’ per say but rely on everyone in the room sharing their own unique experiences and knowledge so that they can work out solutions together. She shares that for some migrants this can be an incredibly grounding experience, allowing them to reconnect with the life that they may have left behind and their autonomy as people.  “And it’s really interesting because then people that are usually just learning, in the position of the one that doesn’t know, can be in the position of the one that knows the best. Maybe he knows how to use a sewing machine because before in his life, he was a tailor… And that’s really interesting to see self-confidence and dignity coming through that kind of relationship where everyone’s equal and we all have something to learn from each other. Maybe the one that knows how to sew doesn’t know how to speak the local language. So, everyone has to learn something in the meeting.” EKO! also run repair cafes every week where refugees and migrants, locals and even tourists come to fix together. It’s a unique opportunity for collaboration between groups that have much working against them. Especially, Marjolaine points out, with the way that the media portrays migrants in France.  All in all, the project has a far-reaching impact on not only the beneficiaries but the local community and volunteers as well. We like to bring this ethos to our own community repair activities, knowing that people from all walks of life have skills and knowledge to share. EKO goal! really take this to an inspiring new level that we can all learn from.  If you’d like to donate or get involved with EKO!’s work, take a look at the following links: EKO!’s wiki with low-tech tutorials Volunteer with EKO! Donate to EKO! The post Restart Podcast Ep. 99: EKO! is changing lives with low-tech solutions appeared first on The Restart Project.