Dare to Repair

     If you're a company that makes money by selling things, planned obsolescence is your best friend. You don't want customers to buy your product and happily use it for the rest of their lives -- no, you want them to buy your product over and over again. That's why smartphone companies make it impossible to update the software on your "old" phone, and it explains the existence of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

     Of course, what's good for Widgets Incorporated is usually not good for anyone else. A manufacturing economy built on throwaway products has brought us a planet covered in junk, seeped in toxins, and battered by climatic extremes. Not to mention: having to replace your stuff is expensive! 

     All of which to say: if you don't want to throw it away, go and find a repair cafe.

 

 

     The idea is pretty simple: when your thing is broken, you take it to a repair cafe, and volunteers try to mend it. You save money. Your community expands. The landfill does not. 

     Dreamed up by a Dutch journalist fourteen years ago, repair cafes now span the globe, with 2500 outposts busily tinkering. There's even an International Repair Day now, every year on October's third Saturday. In short: if it's broke, fix it. Your wallet and the planet will benefit.