Flying the flag for Ireland on International Repair Day

This year on the 17th of October, repair heroes from Duhallow Revamp and An Mheitheal Rothar will be given the stage as part of International Repair Day. Coordinated by the Right to Repair movement and the European RREUSE network, the campaign will see them participate in a series of short videos about heroes from across Europe to highlight their contribution to the repair movement. 

Repair can help to reduce the huge quantities of household goods that we discard every year, including 53 million tonnes of electronic waste globally. Studies have shown about 15 – 30% of everything discarded could be reused or easily repaired. However, many repair skills have been forgotten and the repair of everyday furniture, appliances and clothes has become harder with the use of cheap parts, poor design and greater complexity. 

“We need things to be better designed and need more support for the repair sector to keep goods going for longer”, says Colm O’Connor of Duhallow Reavamp. “This not only provides local jobs and training opportunities, but also hugely benefits the environment”. 

The European Commission has been making some headway recently, with new legislation obliging manufacturers to design certain appliances in a more durable and repairable way and to ensure repair services, parts and manuals are available. However, there is still a great deal to do to get repair back into the mainstream. 

“One first step is to support local repair activities”, says Claire Downey, Executive with CRNI. “We are very proud to see our member, Duhallow Revamp, being represented at European level as it will show the importance of their repair work. We also hope it will encourage people locally to try out their repair service instead of just replacing things”.  

Find out more about your local repair and reuse options online with either crni.ie/directory or repairmystuff.ie. 

• August 24, 2020