Pop Up Repair Cafés to help fix electrical goods and reduce landfill waste in Derry & Strabane

The years long ‘Switch to Repair’ Small Electrical Reuse Project is being organised by Derry City & Strabane District Council in conjunction with Reapir Café Foyle and is expected to be rolled out from next month.

The move was warmly welcomed by elected representatives at the February meeting of the Council’s Environment & Regeneration Committee.

An application for funding was made in early 2023 to Material Focus, an independent not-for-profit organisation aiming to stop electrical items being hoarded or thrown away and instead reused and recycled. Derry & Strabane Council were successful in securing £30,502.

A report brought before elected representatives state: “Research has established that there is some ambiguity around what to do with broken or unwanted small electrical items with people not really sure of how to dispose of them. Some people dispose of them in their black bin or take to their local recycling centre.

"Discarded unwanted electrical items are the fastest growing waste stream across the globe.”

At the new Pop Up repair cafés, members of the public will be able bring along the electrical items to see if they can be repaired for reuse or donation. Repair Café Foyle have a team of skilled volunteers who will help with these repair projects.

It is anticipated that the first “pop up” repair café will be towards the end of March in Castlederg, with subsequent cafes held in other rural areas of the city and district.

The aim is to hold two repair cafes per month so that all residents will have an opportunity to attend a session and Repair Café Foyle are currently seeking out premises.

If successful, consideration will be given to allocating drop-off points across the council area where people can take their unwanted electrical items for repair and subsequent reuse. One option under consideration is how donations of small items i.e. kettles, toasters etc. could be repaired and offered to people in need.

Welcoming the initiative, Sinn Féin Councillor Caitlin Deeney: “You have highlighted the key benefit of repairing electrical goods, particularly eliminating them from landfill and how we could potentially offer these to people in need. I am also delighted we have funding for this. Thank you for Council officers working on this, it’s a really lovely project.”

SDLP Councillor Declan Norris also praised the initiative, saying: “This is a a brilliant project. As someone who would footer at a a lot of things, I very rarely throw out anything, and my father was the same. I think we had a washing machine for 22 years before my wife finally said we have to change it.

"This is a fantastic project and will give people an option. We throw too much stuff out, we have become a population now of just throwing stuff out; if it breaks throw it out, whereas if it is a kettle or something it might only need a new element or a new lead. I think it’s a brilliant project.”