On a sunny Saturday morning in North Hackney, residents gathered to exchange second-hand goods, and get their clothes, bikes and electrical goods repaired. This pop-up event is yet more evidence of Hackney’s commitment to reusing and recycling.
From next month, Hackney residents will be able to use vouchers to pay for 50 per cent of an electrical repair. They will be available through the website of the sustainability charity Restart and funded by the North London Waste Authority’s Community Fund.
But the people of Hackney don’t need such incentives to get them making do and mending. A ‘Reuse and Repair’ workshop at Woodberry Down Primary School on Saturday attracted more than 130 visitors, all hoping to get an item repaired or exchange second-hand goods.
Antony, a technician who repairs laptops for charity Bridge the Gap, was flummoxed when his amplifier stopped working a few months ago. He is now poring over a circuit board with Stephen, a volunteer repairman with the Hackney Fixers group.
“It’s just infuriating,” Antony says, “I took off the top to see if it was anything really obvious, like a tripped fuse or something, but I couldn’t see anything so I brought it here.”
Kathryn, another volunteer who is keen to stress she is hardly a technical expert, has nonetheless found herself picking up tips from the skilled workers. “The whole ethos is that you do it together and have a conversation,” she says.
“There’s always someone who turns up with a carload to get rid of, toys and clothes that have been outgrown.”
Saturday’s event was the last of its kind for the Hackney Fixers. From next month, they will have a permanent home in a new Fixing Factory in Hackney Central, another Restart initiative. As well as repairing items for free, the Fixing Factory will run repair training workshops and sell donated items.
Across the room, fashion enthusiast Ashley is learning how to repair his jeans. The stall is run by freelance tailors Yvonne, Ben and Charlie, and is organised by Traid, a charity which runs second-hand clothes shops across the UK.
Jose Baladron, Traid’s head of partnerships, says its Hackney workshops are always “very popular”.
“We’ve been working in Hackney since 1999, it’s been absolutely brilliant,” Baladron adds. Alongside the pop-ups, Traid has 86 permanent textile banks in the borough where residents can donate their old clothes.
Over at Forest Recyling’s Give and Take stall, 347kg of items found a new home and avoided the bin, to the delight of CEO Alison Griffon.
She says events like this especially appeal to families.“There’s always someone who turns up with a carload to get rid of, toys and clothes that have been outgrown. It’s also a great resource for low-income families to get things for free that they would otherwise go without.”
Cllr Sarah Young, Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Transport on Hackney Council, praised the event’s organisers and attendees for contributing to “Hackney’s circular economy” and “making sure that our borough is sustainable for the future”.
Flora Symington is the beat reporter for Dalston. She is interested in community-focussed stories with people at their heart, and wants to hear from anyone and everyone in this vibrant area. Before moving to London Flora wrote for the Basingstoke Gazette, Cherwell and Trill Mag, as well as presenting and producing podcasts about media and the arts.