Pop-up Repair Cafe tackles landfill waste in Burlington

Sustainability gets a boost with the addition of repair to the classic trio: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

The Burlington Repair Cafe set up shop on Saturday at the Baptist Church on New Street, for residents to bring any broken or damaged small household items to be fixed instead of tossed away.

“If you ever have anything broken just bring it here and we’ll try and fix it,” says 20-year-old Riley Kirkwood.

For two years now, Kirkwood has been volunteering at the Burlington Repair Cafe alongside his grandfather.

Gary Kirkwood has been helping residents in the area with their damaged household items for around four years. For him, being a fixer is about having fun and keeping things out of landfills.

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“This is great, not only keeping things out of the landfill but it’s a lot of fun for us fixers, just enjoy fixing things,” said Gary.

Lawson Hunter, the founder of the Burlington Repair Cafe, sets up shop at different locations every month in the city, providing free repairs for various items like vacuum cleaners, toasters, coffee makers, and more.

Since 2018 the founder says volunteers have worked on 300 items and counting, with a success rate of 70 percent, and it’s all for a good cause.

“Things can be repaired, they used to be in the old days if you look back at your grandparents they always fix things and we just want to continue that tradition,” says Hunter.

Hunter says they usually work on 25 items per session.

“So we’re happy to be one of those all doing the same thing every weekend somewhere around the world there’s a repair cafe happening just like this one.”

For more details on the next session and location visit their Facebook page at Burlington Repair Cafe.

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