Dozens of people come to Matadero with small appliances and broken devices to keep them from ending up in the trash. With neighborhood repair shops gradually disappearing, a group of volunteer repairers gathers at the Repair Café to take apart, inspect, and try to restore functionality to items their owners had given up on.
The space serves as a gathering place for those who prefer “tinkering” over throwing things away. Under the banner of the “right to repair,” volunteers open up the casings of devices, measure voltages with multimeters, and search for the source of the malfunctions. The goal is to extend the useful life of the things we buy through proper maintenance, challenging the current trend that pushes us to replace products at the first sign of a malfunction.
Patience and tools against electronic waste
Parts of all kinds pile up on the workbenches. Neighbors bring everything from record players to robot vacuum cleaners. One of the attendees decided to bring a pool cleaner that had been sitting unused for nearly three years; when she tried to plug it in and saw that it didn’t respond, she chose to take it to the volunteers before getting rid of it for good.
For the members of the initiative, repairing is a direct way to reduce environmental impact. As they explain, it’s often faster or easier to buy a new item, but a minor malfunction shouldn’t be reason enough to deny an appliance a second chance. They acknowledge that there’s a lack of accessible commercial repair services today, so they fill that gap by dedicating their own time to fixing other people’s belongings.
Anyone with a broken item can visit the Repair Café every Saturday from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. to try to fix it with the help of the volunteer team. However, it won’t be held again until August 5 because the volunteer appliance repairers also (and who doesn’t?) have the honorable right to rest.