Green Gown Awards 2020 - Cardiff Metropolitan University - Finalist

Repairing Today for Tomorrow 

The world has become addicted to convenience and waste. Current consumer culture means that in 2017, worldwide material consumption reached 92.1 billion tons, compared to 27 billion in 1970. At Cardiff Met we understand that to achieve a sustainable society that benefits everyone, this throwaway mentality needs to be challenged to help reduce the amount of the planet’s resources we consume. 

In 2019/20, we started a Repair Café, holding monthly events under the name of Repair Café Wales. Students, staff, and the community bring their broken household items and our volunteer repairers do their best to fix them. This work has repaired or helped repair 262 items, including electrical, garments and bikes, saving our community money, helping to prevent these items going to waste and developing repair skills, reducing the amount of raw materials needed to make new items and CO2 emissions. 

Top 3 learnings:

1. When shown a different way of consuming, people embrace the repair culture. 
2. Whether we repair one item or 50, it means a lot to the owners. 
3. A few dedicated volunteers can be just as invaluable as a large team.

View video here.