Sharing & Repairing
Brisbane Tool Library
Australia
The Brisbane Tool Library is one inspiring example of a trend that has swept the world – grassroots hubs (or ‘libraries of things’) which loan out tools that people may want to use occasionally, but not own. The goal, as Brisbane Tool Library founder Sabrina Chakori puts it, is “to go beyond the material consumption of the current ‘take, make, and dispose’ system,” instead creating a circular economy wherein inequality and waste are reduced through cooperation, sharing, and repurposing. These libraries don’t have to be limited to sharing tools, either. Since they are rooted in concrete locations, they allow for relationships to be built, and services and skills to be shared along with material goods. Learn more about the Brisbane Tool Library on their website. And find a tool library near you or learn what steps you can take to start one yourself.
Photo courtesy of Sabrina Chakori
http://brisbanetoollibrary.org/
Club de Reparadores (Repairers’ Club)
Argentina
Members of the Club de Reparadores meet on Saturday afternoons in parks, plazas, or donated workshops to have fun, share knowledge, and repair broken household goods. Some members are repair experts; others just have goods that need fixing — but all share in the determination to keep landfills from filling and corporations from forcing us to put perfectly good products to waste. Though initially the club only met in Buenos Aires, today the Club de Reparadores has chapters in cities all over Argentina. For more information, follow Club de Reparadores on Facebook or Instagram and check out their website.
Photo by Beatrice Murch (CC BY 2.0)
Cooperativa Integral Minga
Portugal
Cooperativa Integral Minga is a multi-faceted cooperative in Portugal promoting agroecological farming, connecting local farmers and consumers, managing a community space and local currency, and encouraging alternatives to consumerism. Watch Local Futures’ Voices from the Field episode about Minga here.
Edventure Frome
UK
Edventure Frome empowers cooperative community enterprises by hosting free 10-week courses that teach groups of young adults to design and create a place-based start-up venture together. An early student team created the Welsh Mill Hub: a community center with co-working offices, a commercial kitchen, and event spaces available for hourly rental. Later cohorts used the Mill Hub space to create more enterprises….
https://edventurefrome.org/about/us-in-2-minutes/
iFixit
USA
Kyle Weins founded online repair community iFixit as part of his work to campaign against “programmed obsolescence.” In a time when companies like Toshiba sue users for sharing manuals, and companies like Apple make it imperative to buy a whole new iPad just because a battery dies, iFixit’s mission — making thousands of product manuals and instruction videos available online, and providing translations, tools and tech support — becomes a surprisingly radical project. In addition, Weins is currently pushing for “Right to Repair” legislation in seven states. His motto: “If you can’t fix it, you don’t really own it.” To learn more, visit iFixit or read Can pop-up ‘repair cafes’ save broken gadgets and solve growing waste levels?
Photo by Thomas Cizauskas (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)