If something of yours broke, what would you do with it? Donate it? Toss it? Or, would you try and fix it?
For Jessica MilNeil, it’s the latter. “My lamp was broken and I came to get it fixed," she said, holding a heavy brass lamp. "This is a lamp that my dad used to use to read music while he played guitar every night.”
Her dad died three years ago, and the lamp collected dust. So she decided to attend a Repair Café in Portland, hosted by Maine's Center for Sustainability. Local volunteers fix broken items for free – with the goal of reducing waste and encouraging people to keep using what they already have.
“The reason we do this is to keep items out of the waste stream," said Tricia Jamiol, the president of the board of Maine's Center for Sustainability.
Volunteers repaired Jessica’s lamp, an old fan, a sweater, a clock, and even a toy accordion.
“It feels very wrong to be consuming the amount of stuff that I know I and my family is consuming," said Ali Mann, who brought the toy accordion. "So if there is any opportunity to minimize that, it feels very important.”
Today’s repairs diverted 73 pounds from the landfill, café organizers said. That’s about two weeks of waste for the average American, who the Environmental Protection Agency says throws away about five pounds every day.
There have been several Repair Cafés across Maine, including a recurring event in Belfast. The idea started in Amsterdam in 2009, and has since grown worldwide.
Volunteers were able to rewire Jessica's lamp. As she turned it back on, the volunteers and attendees cheered.
"Amazing — a working lamp!" MilNeil exclaimed, giving the volunteer fixer a high five.
She said her kids will use this lamp to read on the couch, giving it a second life.
