Suffolk project gets £2,500 grant to save electronics from landfill
Suffolk Repair Shed in Martlesham fixes broken electronics - granting them a new lease of life
Last updated 18th Aug 2022
Suffolk Repair Shed will gain £2,500 from a community partnership, enabling its workers to save electrical and electronic items from landfill.
A grant of £2,500 awarded to the new Suffolk Repair Shed in Martlesham by Melton, Woodbridge and Deben Peninsula community partnership will mainly fund equipment for electrical and electronic diagnosis and repair.
The ‘shed’, which will allow members of the public to bring items in to be fixed, is already equipped for metalwork, woodwork, digital printing and scanning, computer-aided design, and work with fabrics and leather.
It will join repair cafes currently held for two to four hours on a monthly basis at Woodbridge, Martlesham and Holbrook. The idea behind the Repair Shed is that it will provide repairs for more complex items or problems, which will be fixed over a longer period of time.
Moray Macphail, one of the Repair Shed directors who also runs Martlesham’s repair cafe, said: “There’s a whole load of different reasons why people choose to work in the Repair Shed or the cafes. Mostly, it is simply to stop stuff from going to landfill.
“We consume too much collectively, and we waste too much. I cannot deal with energy and food waste, but I can do something about some of the other stuff.
“One of the things about being a repairer at a repair café is that you come in contact with items you don’t know much about, and some workers would rather take their time and research.
“In the shed, repairers will have the time and can buy in repair parts. The repair cafés are great and will definitely be kept – some items are simple enough to be repaired there and then. But I think the Suffolk Repair Shed will be better in many ways.
“At a repair café recently, I had to draw, print and make a new vertebra for a toy cat. The toasters and electrical goods aren’t so cute, but items like this make the work enjoyable.”
The workshop premises (or ‘shed’) is already rented by MacPhail, and will therefore be free of charge to the Suffolk Repair Shed company.
Requests for £2,500 funding have also been submitted to Woodbridge and Kesgrave & Martlesham community partnerships.
Dave Moore, another director for Suffolk Repair Shed, said: “The buildings where repair cafes are held aren’t ideal for certain types of work. I don’t think the people at St John’s Church in Woodbridge would like it if we started welding there!
“The money will completely equip our electrical and electronics workshop, and these items make up a good 50% of what comes up to be repaired at cafes.
“For those who come to repair at the shed, there will be no barriers to them using the facilities for their own projects and there will be plenty of opportunities for skills transfer.”
It was suggested at yesterday’s meeting of the Melton, Woodbridge and Deben Peninsula community partnership that an unintended benefit of this initiative could be a positive impact on men’s mental health.
The Suffolk Repair Shed is expected to open in September, and to hold repair sessions one day a week. People will be able to drop of items to be fixed at designated points throughout the week.
East Suffolk’s community partnerships are designed to help resources meet the needs of local people. Each one includes East Suffolk councillors, partners from town and parish councils, and representatives from Suffolk County Council and local voluntary organisations.