Volunteers dedicated to promoting sustainability have topped a national league table, just in time for International Repair Day on Saturday.
The event was established in 2018 to focus on accessibility of information and resources needed for repairs, and the need for products to be more durable, efficient and repairable. This year the day will see the launch of the Repair and Reuse Declaration, asking for legislators to support repair and reuse.
Ahead of the day, the monthly Stokesley and Villages Repair Cafe topped the national recorded repair charts with the most repaired items by a UK group registered with the international Repair Cafe organisation.
The cafe, run by volunteers from Climate Action Stokesley and Villages, has repaired 462 items this year so far.
It is a gathering of diverse individuals with a range of repair skills and knowledge but united by a concern about damaged or broken household items going to landfill or incineration.
Simon Gibbon, a retired research chemist, leads the group and keeps the records of repairs carried out by volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds, including school teachers, surgeons, pipeline inspectors, architects, market gardeners, engineers, bee keepers, chartered surveyors, therapists and textile artists.
His records show that including the repairs completed at the most recent Repair Cafe at the Globe Community Library last Saturday, October 14, the group’s repairs outnumber all of the other similar groups in the UK.
A spokesperson for the group said: "As well as preventing waste and saving the cost of buying new, the volunteers are sharing their skills to encourage more people to take up repairing and promoting sustainability. Even their distinctive pink T shirts are sustainable having been rescued from being binned by an events promotion company which no longer wanted them after an event.
"All of the volunteers can justly feel proud of this outstanding outcome of their time and efforts all of which are given for free."
North Yorkshire has Repair Cafes in Upper Eskdale and Thirsk as well as the chart toppers at Stokesley. Nearby Guisborough Eco Group has just launched its first pop up Repair Cafe and Saltburn will have their first in the new year. Along with Northallerton and Middlesbrough, these groups are on the lookout for volunteers to join them, details on https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org.
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