By Shiloh Thurrowgood
The Chirnside Park Community Hub is offering a crafty new opportunity for residents with the opening of their Repair Cafe.
The project aims to bring community members together to socialize and give items a second life.
Project Coordinator for the Repair Cafe Rowan Barr said she felt that the Chirnside community needed a repair cafe because everyone has household items that can be easily repaired with a bit of knowledge.
“A repair cafe is a place where people can bring broken items to be repaired by volunteers who have the skills and knowledge to fix them,” she said.
“It aims to reduce waste and give items a new life, while also building community connections.”
A repair cafe has recently been successfully running in Ringwood. Due to technology, everyday domestic skills such as sewing and appliance repair skills have declined in the past decade.
Ms Barr said the repair cafe is a very friendly and supportive place with a relaxed atmosphere and very supportive.
“We don’t turn people away and often an item might have two or three repairs actually looking at it at the same time to see and putting their minds together,” she said.
“It’s putting the power back in people’s hands so that’s a great gift to give people so I think it’s done wonders for all the people involved in the repair cafe.”
In 2020-21 Australia generated 75.8 mega tonnes of waste, roughly equivalent to 471 Sydney Opera Houses.
“The majority of people in the repair cafe, the repairers and the helpers are retirees as well. So they have the time and they’re looking for something purposeful to do,” Ms Barr said
“It gives volunteers the opportunity to transfer the skills they’ve gathered in their career, or in their daily life at home being a good DIY and bring them to the repair cafe and they get a lot of respect from people and appreciation when they fix an item.”
The repair cafe will be open from 10am to 12pm on 2 July, 6 August, 10 September, 8 October and 12 November this year.
Ms Barr said she hopes this program will not only repair items but teach the community how to repair items.
“The repair cafe aims to reduce overconsumption and transitioning to a circular economy will require a combination of government policies, business initiatives, and changes in consumer behavior,” she said.
“Education and information sharing through community groups like repair cafes can help raise awareness of sustainability.”
A circular economy is an economic system based on reducing and reusing and regeneration of products and materials, whereas a linear economy extracts resources and doesn’t use them to their full potential before they are thrown away.
Repair cafes help keep items in use for longer, reducing the need for new production, helping our wallets and reducing the amount of waste going into landfill.
Ms Barr has called on the Victorian Government to put more policies in place that encourage businesses to set up recycling programs for end-of-life products, establish education programs to inform the public about more sustainable places to recycle items and provide more funding for not-for-profits and charities working on waste reduction and circular economy initiatives
Chirnside Park Community Hub Manager Janelle Strachan said if people are wanting to volunteer, it can give them a sense of purpose.
“It’s good for their well being as well, when they come into the repair cafe, they’re part of something special and something that they can then help other people,” she said.
“You can walk away thinking Hey, I’ve made somebody’s life a bit easier or be happier.”
The repair cafe is always looking for volunteers, anyone interested can contact Rowan Barrs at 0450 828 800, message the ‘Chirnside Park Repair Cafe’ Facebook page or email repaircafemelbornne@hotmail.com.
Donations to the Chirnside Repair Cafe can be made at zero.org.au or by contacting the Chirnside Park Community Hub.
