Horsham first repair cafe is opening its doors and encouraging residents to fix their broken household items rather than ditch them.
The new Horsham Repair Cafe is being run by Horsham Urban Landcare and will be staffed by skilled volunteers from the community.
Horsham Rural City Council’s Landcare Facilitator Annie Hobby hopes the cafe will get people in the community thinking about fixing items rather than simply throwing them out.
“For many people these days, when something no longer works or is broken, their first thought is to bin it,” Ms Hobby said.
“But what we are trying to do with this repair cafe is show our community that there is an alternative, and many items that would otherwise be destined for waste can in fact be repaired and reused. We will have a range of repairers at each session that can fix items including small electrical items, clothing and jewellery.”
Council first supported the establishment of the Repair Cafe in 2020 with a $1300 grant that was put towards the purchase of essential tools. However the global pandemic put its launch on hold.
Repair cafes can be found around the world. They are often run by community organisations and help people repair broken items, instead of seeing them end up in landfill. Another feature of the Repair Cafe is that while items are being fixed, valuable skills are passed on.
Each repair volunteer will work with the owner of the item to teach them how the repair is made.
The Repair Cafe also provides an opportunity for social connection with anyone able to drop in, have a chat, a cup of tea and pick up some new repair and DIY skills.
The Repair Cafe will be located at the Senior Citizens Hall, 17 Roberts Avenue. The first session will be held on Saturday 25th June, from 2pm to 5pm.
