About

Why Repair?

We live in a throw-away culture and generate unsustainable amounts of waste every year. Every individual in the UK generates approximately 24.5 kg of electronic waste per year. Only 30-60% of that is recycled, with the rest ending up in landfill or incineration. In 2024, Londoners spent £3.24 billion (that is around £464 per person) replacing items that could have been repaired.

If something breaks, the default response is “we’ll just buy a new one”. Things used to be different less than a generation ago: repair was common, but we are slowly losing the necessary skills. Now, there is a growing realisation that we need to be more careful with our limited resources and transition to more circular economy models. Issues with supply chains also mean that new items might not be available or as cheap as they used to be.

Why The Repair Finder?

Frank, our founder, started The Repair Finder CIC out of years of experience running the Marlow Repair Café, the first of its kind in Buckinghamshire (in the United Kingdom), and has helped to start up many more. Repair Cafés (or Restart Parties or Fixit Clinics) are events or places where skilled volunteers help visitors repair their items.

While many visitors to such a Repair Café want to learn how to repair their items or perhaps could not find a repairer willing to repair their items, others just want to have something repaired. A frequent question, either in person or via email started with “Do you know someone who could repair…”.

Thus was born The Repair Finder: a way to make repair the easy, accessible option for all. Connecting people with the repair(er) they need and bringing repair to people. Our income comes from our paid-for services, donations and our repair-themed merchandise sales.

The Repair Finder funds repair

The Repair Finder CIC is a non profit and all our profits are reinvested back into the repair community. Specifically, The Repair Finder:

• Supports community repair and access to repair
• Supports traineeships in repair businesses
• Supports policy changes, e.g. around Right to Repair

If you have ideas, suggestions, a good (or bad) repair story, please contact us.