Bring your broken things to the big Repair Day in Barnstaple this Saturday

Recycle Devon is joining forces with more than 1,000 community groups, businesses and schools across the world to celebrate International Repair Day on Saturday (October 18).

It is an annual celebration for everyone who makes repair happen in their communities around the world and Recycle Devon will be marking the occasion by hosting a community Repair Day at Barnstaple Library this Saturday from 10am to 1pm.

The event will see a variety of local groups from Devon’s thriving repair community, coming together to mend and fix all kinds of household items for free (small donations are welcome). 

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Volunteers from Barnstaple, Bideford, High Bickington and Atherington and Okehampton Repair Cafes will be on hand to fix mechanical and electrical items, repair beaded jewellery, mend clothing, sharpen tools and much more, as well as serving hot drinks and cakes.

The event will also offer bike repairs from the Salvation Army and a visible mending drop-in workshop run by Earth Action North Devon (EAND), showing visitors how to creatively turn repairs into eye catching features. EAND will also be demonstrating how to give broken tents a second lease of life by repurposing them into something new.

Representatives from Suez will be attending to promote the repair and reuse services available at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) across Devon.

If you would like to find out more about choosing and using reusable nappies, chat to a volunteer Devon Real Nappy Project advisor who will be on hand to help.

The event is open to all and items will be assessed and repaired on a first come, first served basis.

This year’s International Repair Day, organised by the Open Repair Alliance, will bring the issue of software obsolescence to the fore and is expected to be even bigger than 2024 when more than 2,000 events were held in 40 countries.

The Open Air Alliance is calling on political leaders to help put an end to the premature disposal of electronics by making products durable and repairable, providing funding to increase reuse and repair of electrical equipment and ending planned obsolescence. 

Councillor Jacqi Hodgson, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Biodiversity, said: "This is a great opportunity to celebrate the power of repair in Devon and globally. Repair events such as Repair Cafes bring our communities together, encourage skill sharing, and help reduce our waste and impact on the environment.”

Whether you’re a repairer, community organiser, tinkerer, maker, repair business, campaigner or simply a fan of fixing, there are lots of ways to join in on the celebrations taking place at Barnstaple Library.

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For more information about taking part, get in touch via the Recycle Devon website. 

Repair Cafes run regularly across Devon all year round – find your nearest one and other reuse groups, on Recycle Devon’s Community Map.

For information about reducing, reusing and repairing in Devon, visit www.recycledevon.org.