海角大神

Terry Manning learned how to sew in junior high school, and she now finds herself fixing broken zippers and other clothing mishaps for her neighbors. Many people don鈥檛 know how to sew, observes Ms. Manning, who is in her late 80s. 鈥淢en especially,鈥� she notes.

On a recent Saturday, Manning ran a sewing station at an event in Stow, Mass., where she and others repaired household and personal items free of charge for anyone who showed up. The event was part of the global movement, which brings together handy volunteers and their less-skilled neighbors who are saddled with damaged toasters and lamps, as well as clothes that would benefit from a needle and thread.

In Stow, Manning was fixing the too-big shoulders on a man鈥檚 shirt. She mused, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if [schools offer] today what they had years ago: Girls took sewing, boys took woodworking. Do they still do this?鈥�

As Manning has observed, mending clothes seems to have fallen out of favor. This is in part because of the rise of 鈥渇ast fashion,鈥� a trend in which clothing is made quickly and inexpensively and is ultimately disposable. Also, electronics and household appliances have become easier and often cheaper to replace than to fix. So it鈥檚 no wonder that fewer people can repair things. But a big problem is lurking behind these seemingly innocuous developments: Too many broken things end up in landfills. Electronics, in particular, leach heavy metals and toxic chemicals into the ground, and if they're incinerated, they spew harmful substances into the air.

And the world鈥檚 trash pile is growing exponentially. In the United States, municipalities generated in 2014 than they did in 1980, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. City dwellers worldwide will produce about in 2100 as they did in 2013, according to projections by a former World Bank specialist and others.

To people like Martine Postma, this is unsettling 鈥� and unnecessary.

鈥淚 started to think about, Why do people throw away so much?鈥� says Ms. Postma, a former journalist in Amsterdam. 鈥淚 think deep down everyone knows it鈥檚 not normal to throw an item away when it breaks.鈥�

So Postma launched the Repair Caf茅 in Amsterdam in 2009. The simple concept started to spread, inspiring organizers from Stow to Antwerp, Belgium, to Baku, Azerbaijan. In fact, there are now associated with what has become Postma鈥檚 nonprofit Repair Caf茅 Foundation.

Although the foundation doesn鈥檛 fund local events, it offers an instruction manual in seven languages for those who want to set up events. Fixers bring their own tools to the events, while snacks and coffee are funded through donations.

鈥淚 wanted to make repair attractive once more,鈥� Postma says.

In Stow, the event was organized by the town鈥檚 Council on Aging and the Rotary Club of Nashoba Valley. Volunteer fixers 鈥� many of whom are engineers or artists, either currently working or retired 鈥� operated repair stations, each with a specialty such as electronics, clothing, or knife sharpening.

Jon Canchola and Chris Kline, an information technology specialist and a civil engineer, respectively, are neighbors from the nearby town of Maynard (they want to start a repair event there). They鈥檝e volunteered in Stow because they love to tinker, they say, and because they know that replacing broken things is too expensive for some people.

鈥淲e both come from working-class families where it鈥檚 not like you can go out and replace everything,鈥� Mr. Canchola says.

At Stow鈥檚 Repair Caf茅 in April, the two were disassembling a broken Keurig coffee maker. 鈥淟ooks like there鈥檚 a valve not working,鈥� diagnosed Canchola, while he and Mr. Kline tended to the apparatus lying in front of them, Kline with a headlamp on, almost as if they were two surgeons.

The owner of the coffee maker, Lisa Moore, hovered nearby. The Keurig was a Christmas gift from her children, and she had already spent $60 on descaling products in an attempt to fix it. Canchola and Kline were her last hope before trashing the device.

In case the repair didn鈥檛 work out, Ms. Moore did some math out loud to weigh the alternative: 鈥淚 have a $20 coupon, and they鈥檙e on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond for $100, so I can get a new one for $80, but I鈥檝e already spent $60.鈥�

Canchola and Kline聽were able to fix the Keurig machine, but it was one of the most complicated items they鈥檝e worked on, they said, partly because it was hard to open up.

High-tech coffee makers are among many consumer products, including smartphones, laptops, and cars, that are designed to make repair difficult, if not impossible, Postma says. For example, some manufacturers of products with embedded software 鈥� which include various household items 鈥� don鈥檛 share repair information, claiming it鈥檚 proprietary.

鈥淚 think that鈥檚 purposely done by manufacturers because it鈥檚 in their interest that we buy new stuff,鈥� Postma says. 鈥淚f you want to have a sustainable society, you should promote repair.鈥�

Postma says the next chapter for her foundation is to push manufacturers to make things easier to fix. One way for companies to do this, she says, is to make repair manuals available to customers.

Such ideas are part of a repair movement spreading around the world. On Jan. 1, Sweden to appliances, bicycles, household linen, clothes, leather goods, and shoes from 25 to 12 percent. 鈥淚 believe there is a shift in view in Sweden at the moment,鈥� Per Bolund, Sweden鈥檚 minister for Financial Markets and Consumer Affairs, told the Guardian last September. 鈥淭here is an increased knowledge that we need to make our things last longer in order to reduce materials鈥� consumption.鈥�

Last year, a in France that requires manufacturers to include on their product labels information about how long spare parts will be available.

The repair movement in the US is happening on the state level, with in states including New York, Tennessee, Illinois, and Wyoming, according to the Repair Association, an advocacy group. These bills call on manufacturers of digital products to offer consumers and independent repair shops the same tools, parts, and repair information that they make available to their own, authorized repair shops. The idea is to increase competition in repair and, thus, lower costs for consumers.

The model for the recent spate of legislation is a 2012 Massachusetts law that required carmakers to make the repair information that they give their dealers available to independent repair shops. The law spurred automakers to make repair information available to repair shops nationwide.