Repair Café: A Global Network for Fixing, Not Tossing

Repair Café was started by Dutch journalist Martine Postma, who organised the first repair gathering in Amsterdam in October 2009 to help neighbours fix broken belongings instead of throwing them away. She founded the Repair Café International Foundation in 2010 to support volunteers setting up similar free workshops elsewhere, providing manuals, publicity materials and a starter kit. The network has since grown into more than 2,500 volunteer-run repair cafes worldwide, keeping usable items out of landfill and passing on repair skills.