Went to a repair cafe in Austin and walked away confused

I stopped by this volunteer repair event last Saturday thinking I'd just watch, but this guy fixed a 15 year old toaster with a paperclip and some glue. The whole thing took him 5 minutes and he didn't even charge the owner. Are repair cafes the future of keeping stuff out of landfills or just a feel good thing that won't scale?

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west.claire1d ago

Went to one in Portland last fall with a lamp that wouldn't turn on, a volunteer fixed the switch with a dime's worth of solder in about ten minutes. It's small scale but I've seen groups like this save hundreds of pounds of e-waste in a single day just in my neighborhood. Feels more like a community win than a full solution, but it's definitely a start if more cities hop on board.