Repair cafés are becoming more popular as people look for sustainable and cost-effective ways to fix the things they own.
Inside a lobby at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, several people have set up desks, labeled to tell attendees what the person can fix. At the jewelry repair desk, Ana Mukherji helps those fixing her necklace.
"There are multi colored beads. So the original, in the original necklace, the thread had kind of ripped, so my beads were falling apart," said Mukherji. "So these nice people, they have this wire which is way stronger than the one that I had, and they are helping me fix it.”
The East Greenbush resident says the necklace holds a lot of sentimental value. She got it during her time vacationing at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India. Mukherji says she often attends repair cafés to get help with restoring her belongings. This repair café visit includes the necklace and an electric fan. Mukherji likes that the cafés help her in being more sustainable.
"The mentality is okay, if something is causing trouble, just throw it away and buy another one, which is not really great for the environment," said Mukherji. "So this helps us, if things can be fixed, it's better we try to fix them and reuse them.”
As more states consider Right to Repair legislation, a movement giving consumers a choice in how they fix their own equipment, people have begun to reconsider how they maintain their belongings while also being sustainable about it. Repair cafés have become a community making space bringing in both people who want to learn how to fix something and people who need something fixed.
Sophia Turnbow is a senior at RPI, she is one of the organizers of the college’s repair café. She says the café is a fun way for Capital Region fixers to convene.
"The goal of it is to bring together students and anyone from the community in the local area, Troy, Albany," said Turnbow. "And, basically just create a space where people can get their things fixed and also learn how to fix them, because that's a really important skill to have.”
Turnbow hopes, in turn, it inspires more people to opt for repair rather than replacement.
"A lot of people have lost the skills to be able to fix things and and get hands on with their the things that they own that matter," said Turnbow. "So it’s important to to have those skills. And especially like repair cafes, being one of those community spaces is really important."
This sentiment rings true for Naomi Restituyo, an RPI freshman who sits across from Mukherji, helping her fix the necklace. She says this is her first time performing repairs at a café.
“I've never really done this before. I didn't even know that they existed, but I think it's a very nice thing," said Restituyo. "We could help a lot of people get things fixed instead of throwing them away, which reduces waste.”
