As 2022 gets on the road, we spoke to Jenni Gwiazdowski, founder and Director of London Bike Kitchen. With cycling taking more prominence in recent years, due to concerns about pollution and safety on public transport, what better time to learn more about maintaining and fixing your bike? Gwiazdowski tells us about her journey from amateur fixer to bike repair savant and sharing these skills. 

The idea for London Bike Kitchen was conceived when Gwiazdowski wanted to learn how to build and maintain her own bike. After learning about the concept of bike kitchens from a friend, she decided to start her own, as London was lacking this type of space. Since its opening in 2012, LBK has taught people of all backgrounds how to maintain and repair their bikes and also fostered a diverse and welcoming community. They had to change their practices due to the pandemic but carried on teaching online. Gwiazdowski tells us about the challenges that this presented and how interactivity stayed integral to their work. 

Gwiazdowski is also co-founder of Women of Colour Cycling Collective and LBK regularly hold online WAG (Women and Gender Variant) Nights. She works hard to encourage those who do not necessarily feel represented or welcome in traditional workshop spaces. We talk about how the repair community can make events more inclusive. She points out that it is integral that members of minority groups are already present – and often leading – these spaces.

There are also changes happening in the production of bikes, with the rise of proprietary parts and designs that make repairing much more difficult, and often more expensive. This is a trend that Gwiazdowski – and us as a repair community – hope does not catch on. She tells us of a couple of instances that exemplify how these business practices create additional barriers to repair.

“The current new bikes that are coming out with proprietary fittings and proprietary parts, that drives me crazy…I wish I could smack the industry and just be like, don’t do this. I know all you care about is money but think about something else for a second and think about the repairability of a bike.”

Alongside the inaccessibility and cost of new parts, supply chains for bike parts in general have been disrupted by the pandemic. The inability to get common parts like cassettes without warning has inhibited their work and will probably continue. 

There are also changes happening in the culture of cycling. In terms of being on the road, Gwiazdowski says that there is still a long way to go. But conversation shifts in recent years mean that the safety of cyclists is starting to be considered, with more bike lanes being introduced across London.

However, now the focus needs to be directed at making cycling safer for everyone – not just those that are able-bodied or riding road bikes. She quotes Wheels for Wellbeing Director, Isabelle Clement, saying “when you build for the most vulnerable, you create the most inclusive infrastructure.” Wider, more accessible bike lanes mean that those on unconventional bikes like cargo bikes, and families can ride more safely. This is the direction that she hopes cycling and road infrastructure goes.

Links:

[Photo courtesy of Jenni Gwiazdowski]

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Having spent the year talking to many activists, authors and repairers in the UK and Europe, we thought we would hear from somewhere a bit further away from home.

We spoke to Mathew Lubari, a repairer from the Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Lubari is the founder and a team leader at Community Creativity for Development (CC4D), an environmental initiative based at the settlement. What we learned is that the same barriers exist here in the UK and EU as they do elsewhere, but for many people these barriers are much more challenging. 

Lubari first got interested in repair by watching his father and then while at university in Uganda, but when he had to flee his home of South Sudan, repair took on a whole new role in his life. Lubari tells us about the makeshift toolkit that he managed to take with him when he came to the camp. It included rudimentary tools including scissors, a boxcutter, a screwdriver and a toothbrush and he had to undertake repairs for a while before tools became accessible. 

CC4D runs training courses, teaching essential repair skills to those at the camp. Through these courses, Lubari hopes to improve the conditions of those living at the camp by giving them more autonomy and a way to make a living. They also teach on the environmental benefits of repair, especially in relation to how e-waste impacts the health of their area. 

Lubari explains how repair allows those living at the camp to continue on with their lives with more independence. Whether it is being able to contact loved ones, view the news, or spot dangers at night, the ability to repair their devices is essential. He also points out the importance of a device and the internet to even be able to access repair information such as manuals. This is an issue that many of us don’t consider when there are plentiful internet-enabled devices in our house. 

There are many aspects of living at the refugee camp that exacerbate the barriers to repair. Without repair cafes, people have to travel extreme distances and spend money that they simply do not have in order to even get the chance to repair their things. Sometimes, Lubari says, he will wait weeks for a spare part to arrive from another city and sometimes the spare part will not even exist. 

Lubari would like to expand CC4D and their repair cafes across the entirety of the Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement, serving a population of over 120,000 people. While this sounds like a massive feat, the enthusiasm and need is definitely there. He also tells about their plan to work together to collate a repair manual archive of their own, accessible by anyone in the community who needs it. You can get in touch directly with Lubari via Facebook and WhatsApp if you’d like to support his work.

Links:

[Photo courtesy of Mathew Lubari and CC4D]

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As 2021 draws to a close, Janet and Ugo reflected on this precarious but successful year. Despite many setbacks, we have made great strides towards the Right to Repair in both the UK and the EU – even though there is still a long way to go. In London, Restarters have also done a fantastic job supporting each other and their communities in many new ways. 

The announcement of the French Repairability Index back in January set the year off on a promising trajectory for Right to Repair policy. While the Index is not perfect by any means, we discuss how it set a precedent for how other countries (and hopefully the EU) can and have been implementing repairability ratings on retail products. Countries that have followed suit include New Zealand and most recently, Spain. 

A more worrying topic we reflected on was the increase in serialisation of parts. It’s an extremely technical matter but Ugo breaks down why this practice is such a concern. We’ve spoken to multiple repairers about this issue and while sometimes solvable, it is make or break for independent repair. 

Here in the UK, the government did make moves towards Right to Repair. This summer, new regulations came into play that meant “manufacturers will have to make repair information and spare parts available for repairs for up to ten years for some new white goods and televisions.” While its a step in the right direction, we explain why it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough. 

And our final story is a recent one. We discuss Apple’s announcement in November that they will give access to repair information and spare parts to US consumers. It was a shocking, and welcome, move but as we learned once again does not extend as far as is necessary. 

We are really proud of the work that our community has done this year to help those in need have better digital access. We’ve been helping London-based organisations like Mer-IT and Catbytes with their laptop reuse projects – supporting them with repairing donated laptops and running a fundraising campaign to support laptop reuse work. The digital access movement gained steam with many outlets reporting on it, especially the BBC, and repairers were able to provide vital resources to many in need. 

A lot of the laptop repair work was done by volunteers at home but as the year progressed we began to be able to repair together in person again. We talked about what that looked like and how some of the safety changes may actually be beneficial in other ways. 

We discuss how repair events are also integral to our data work, collecting information about repairs and devices. This year, we sorted and analysed a lot of our data, producing solid insights to help affect policy decisions. Some of this information was also used to inform the Right to Repair campaign’s recent report on batteries. 

Ugo and Janet are optimistic as they share their hopes for 2022. These include more policy changes and global collaboration from the repair community. Thanks for listening to Restart Radio this year and continuing to support our work, we hope to see some of these goals come to fruition with your help!

Links:

[Feature image by Mark A Phillips, licensed under CC BY 4.0.]

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This month we talked to author and activist, Alice Bell about her recent book entitled, Our Biggest Experiment: An Epic History of the Climate Crisis. Bell’s extensive research into the topic along with her work as a director at Possible, made her the perfect person to join us in the month of COP26. 

In November, we were thinking a lot about carbon emissions and who is most responsible for the state of our climate. Bell’s immense historical knowledge helps us understand the massive impact that the UK has had on the world trajectory towards huge consumption of fossil fuels and other damaging practices.

We start our conversation by asking where did climate change begin – or at least where do our records start? Bell tells us about the ‘Little Ice Age’ and the factors that are thought to have caused it. Despite such early signs that human activity was causing changes to the climate, the idea that temperatures could rise was not the biggest worry back then. Unfortunately, this perception seems to have persevered in the minds of powerful figures for a long time. Even now, when the risk is much more widely recognised, severe enough action is still not being taken. 

Bell tells us about a few figures who were vital to the progress of climate science but who were either largely ignored or forgotten. Eunice Foote and John Tyndall both made note of the link between CO2 levels in our atmosphere and changing temperatures in the 1800s which makes you wonder how we got this far without taking action earlier. We also consider the problematic way that the onus of fixing the climate is continuously pushed onto younger generations. 

Climate activism has a complicated and difficult past. We discuss the racist overtones of the overpopulation discussion and the way that this has shifted blame onto different groups over the decades. Luckily, climate science has changed a lot over the years. However, this does not mean that those responsible are doing enough. 

Bell points out the hypocrisy of many richer nations, especially in the lead up to an event like COP26. There is evidence of fossil fuel use as far back as 4,000 years ago in Mongolia. However, industrialisation in the UK and other countries is really what set us on course for where we are today. It is essential that these countries take more responsibility for their impact. 

“It’s really one of the many tragedies of the climate story – that many countries that have done very, very little to cause this problem are dealing with the biggest impacts. And also because of centuries of exploitation, they’re not in a financial position to be able to deal with this.”

It is not just responsible for the emissions that we create in the UK, but also our consumer emissions overseas. Bell points out that many of the ‘successes’ the UK have had – for example phasing out the use of coal – are only possible because of outsourcing.

Bell does not have high hopes for COP26 or major world governments. But conferences are not the only way to make a change. She believes that activists and organisations like Restart, play an essential role in educating people on how they can have an impact.

Overall, it is a message of realism but also hope. Now that we have seen the outcome of COP26, there is likely a lot of disappointment or despair. However, Bell says it is not ‘game over’ just yet. 

Links:

[Feature image courtesy of Alice Bell]

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We hear a lot about carbon emissions in the news and they are a major culprit in the climate crisis. Sometimes, it can be difficult to track where these emissions are coming from. Manufacturers are rarely thorough or honest in accounting for their output. As individuals, it can be frustrating to not have control over this. 

In celebration of Repair Day 2021, we held a webinar alongside the European Right to Repair campaign on consumption emissions. We explored what consumption emissions are, how to minimise them, and how repair helps. In this episode, you will hear a Q&A facilitated by Ugo Vallauri and Chloé Mikolajczak. We were lucky enough to be joined by Professor John Barrett from the University of Leeds to answer these questions and give a short presentation on the topic. 

Most simply, consumption emissions are emissions released during the production of the things that we buy. As opposed to our territorial emissions which are those produced in the UK. Barrett explains to us exactly why accounting for them is so essential in reducing the harm that we are doing to our planet. According to him, consumption emissions are “widely neglected” when considering solutions to reducing our environmental impact. Part of the reason is that they are not as visible as territorial emissions. It is more difficult for the government to claim victory in reducing them and therefore less appealing. In reality, once we do account for our consumption emissions, our national impact is almost doubled. 

We also ask specifically about “Scope 3” emissions in reporting by big companies, a category that is often the most forgotten. Scope 3 emissions encompass many things but mainly the “downstream” impacts of a company’s activities, like a product being manufactured. Barrett says that it is crucial that companies become better acquainted with these impacts and account for them. He also stresses that the best way to minimise these emissions is to lower production rates in the first place. 

When we talk about minimising our carbon emissions, a common rebuttal is that our efforts as the UK are pointless unless countries like China lower their emissions too. However, Barrett helps us refute that claim by explaining the various falsehoods and the part that we have to play in these very figures. A significant part of industry in China is down to demand from consumers in places like the UK – making us accountable. 

“If we don’t take responsibility for all our consumer products, we are saying that we deserve a greater percentage of the global remaining carbon pie. That to me is clearly linked to the discussion on justice and the right to develop. And the right for countries to access carbon where it is needed to enable that development.”

Barrett also pushes for accountability in managing our carbon output in consideration of the rest of the globe. The UK has the funds and resources to do better. Therefore, we must take this action on behalf of those who cannot. 

We briefly discuss solutions for emissions reduction like carbon offsetting. However, Barrett believes that efforts like this are nowhere near enough to what is needed. 

“Clearly the best way to reduce the impact of the product from the consumer element is actually not to buy it because then we know that there’s zero impact associated with it”

He points out that one of the very best ways to minimise consumption emissions is to not buy products in the first place. This does not mean that we should stop buying smartphones altogether. Rather, that if we repair instead of buying new ones so often we can minimise our individual impact. In order to make this an option for everyone, we need policy measures that make repair as accessible and simple as possible. 

Links:

[Photo courtesy of Ted McGrath, is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]

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We revisit an episode from 2018 with photographer and friend of Restart, Mark Phillips. Phillips has an exciting exhibition, ‘Repair is Essential’, co-produced with Alex Horn of West Central London Fixers, currently showing at The Tabernacle in London. You can check it out through Sunday 17th October!

Phillips’ portfolio is expansive and immersive. In this interview, he tells us about his work photographing repair culture – from Cuba to our very own Restart Parties. In the last few years, his work has only developed more as he has spent time travelling around Europe photographing repair in Scandinavia, Germany, and professional repairers in the UK. 

Before we get into the interview though, we have an important announcement about Repair Day. On 16th October it is he fifth annual International Repair Day. This year the theme is “Repair lowers carbon emissions,’ in response to this year’s IPCC report and the upcoming COP26 summit. ​​There is no better time for us to concentrate on how our work as a repair community is vital in the ongoing fight against climate change. And it is also a time to celebrate repair! Whether online or in-person we hope you get to repair together this year.

We also have a big announcement from Right to Repair EU with the launch of the 10-year smartphone campaign. We explain what the 10-year smartphone is, why it needs to be the new standard, and why you might not be able to buy one just this second. These reasons are further supported by some recent news about the new iPhone 13 and Apple’s increasingly frustrating crusade against third party repair. 

Phillips explains to us the origins of his interest in photographing repair culture. On a trip to Cuba for an academic conference, he could not help but note the way that the people there put painstaking effort into repairing the smallest things. Phillips decided to capture this unique culture of repair and took photos of lighter refurbishers on the street and a wrench held in the door of a car – you never know when a repair will be needed. This is when he began documenting ‘the never-ending life of Cuban things’. Since then, Phillips has embarked across the globe to photograph repairers of all kinds – including much of our local repair community here in London.

The drive to repair exists for many different reasons. In Cuba and Ghana, for example, this drive is often born out of necessity. While recognising the unfortunate circumstances, we can learn from those who are constantly being forced to innovate and reuse what they already have. By documenting this repair culture, Phillips encourages us to think of the opportunities that we have and expand our understanding of why repairing is so essential – as is the focus of Phillips’ exhibition. 

While Phillips has spent a lot of time photographing repair culture abroad, he also is very involved in photographing our London community. From repair businesses to Restart Parties, if you love an image we have shared it was likely taken by him. We know that photographing in these spaces can be challenging and Phillips tells us more about why. This is only part of the reason that we are so thankful for his work with us over the years. 

Finally, we share our views on the future of repair culture. Mark tells us about some sustainable design projects that have inspired him and given him hope. However, we also note the lack of these projects. Since this discussion, we have fortunately seen more of these examples pop up. Nonetheless, there is always room for innovation and this work becomes more urgent and essential every day. 

Links:

[Images by Mark A Phillips, licensed under CC BY 4.0.]

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This month we spoke to Dr Karen Patel from Birmingham City University about her work on Craft Expertise, a project researching inequalities in the craft sector and documenting experiences of makers from marginalised backgrounds. Dr Patel interviewed over 20 women on their experiences in craft.

Her research pertains specifically to the craft sector but we found that there are many similarities to the repair community – both positive and negative. Dr Patel shared insights with us from her research and we considered how we can support minority groups in our own repair community. 

There are multiple barriers to success – and simply to entry – into the craft world, mirroring those we see in repair. Dr Patel discussed how these are often related to people’s identities and pointed at minority groups. 

For example, those who come from a working-class background may find it harder to build a career in craft. Craft is viewed by many as precarious work and even by some parents of craftspeople, is treated as a hobby rather than a job. Along with its lack of inclusion in school curriculums and higher education, this view only becomes reinforced further. 

For female makers and makers of colour, Dr Patel tells us about the lack of safe spaces in the craft sector. Studios, fairs, classrooms and more are all spaces that are often white and disproportionately male-dominated. This means that other makers can feel unwelcome, unsupported and unsafe in these environments. 

The report found that microaggressions were an all too common occurrence in the craft sector. Almost all of the women interviewed reported these or worse.

We discuss how microaggressions can be extremely difficult to report and act on as they are often behaviours that are difficult to identify and therefore report. Another form of discrimination is the exotification, and resulting devaluing of expertise and experience, when it comes to makers of colour creating cultural objects. 

Like craft, the repair sector can feel like a very male-dominated space. While our community is explicitly a radically open and supportive space, we have received comments in the past from women who have not felt respected or listened to by male peers.

We ask Dr Patel if our Rosie the Restarter skillshares are a good tactic for supporting female-identifying and non-binary repairers in the repair community. 

We also have an essential discussion about how we could better tackle incidents of discrimination at Restart Parties or in the extended online space. This includes making the process safer and easier to report these occurrences if they do happen. 

Finally, we talked about the dynamics around gendered activities. Binaries around who craft and repair are traditionally for are limiting for everyone. We commit to working to make our community more inclusive and equal for all. 

Links:

[Feature image courtesy of Dr Karen Patel]

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Our summer podcast season has come to a close and what a time it’s been! We revisited our archive and picked some of the episodes where our discussion touched on the pandemic and the events of the last eighteen months. 

Throughout the episode, we hear select clips from nine recent guests and situate these discussions. We cover healthcare,  from patents and barriers to medical device repair. We reflect on how workers in the electronics industry have been negatively affected including those working in factories in Asia, to professional repairers on the high streets of London. 

There were a lot of expectations at the beginning of the pandemic about how measures like lockdown might have a silver lining in terms of lowering carbon emissions. We hear how this was not necessarily the case and instead learn what active changes we can campaign for to make a real difference.

Luckily, we also had some big glimmers of hope and optimism in our community over the last year. We spoke to repairers who were fixing donated laptops to give to those in need and an artist who managed to create a stunning piece of interactive art to bring joy to the community despite the circumstances.

Links:

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Happy August, listeners! We’re on our summer break but there will be a special podcast episode in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, we have a simple ask for your help.

Please take a couple of minutes to complete the Restart Radio listeners survey.

The last time we conducted a survey of listeners was in 2019 and we found it incredibly helpful and took action based on many of your suggestions – this included the type of guests that we brought on, building the archive page for easier navigation of content, and transcripts which we are working on creating for each episode. 

We really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to respond so far. We heard from a listener in Canada who commented that our “variety of subject on sustainability and repair is years beyond other outlets” which is part of the reason why we see value in producing the shows. 

We’re also interested to hear that multiple listeners would like us to get more into the ‘nitty gritty’ about repair, pointing to our serialisation episode as a stand out in this area – which we are proud of!

We’d love to hear what you think of the content that we have been creating – what have you liked and what we could improve. We haven’t had quite as much of a response as we did last time we conducted one of these surveys so please if you haven’t done it yet go fill it in. We look forward to hearing from you!

Fill in the survey here!

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As summer gets into full swing, we get down and dirty with a craft that is all about unlocking the natural resources that we are standing right on top of – cob building.

Kate Edwards runs Edwards Cob Building where she teaches complete beginners how to build a cob house – literally – from the ground up. In addition to her teaching, Edwards also works on many original buildings and renovations, historical restoration and art pieces. We talked to Edwards about the sustainability of cob and why this ancient practice is the future of building. 

So why is cob building so sustainable? Well, for one, you might be able to find all of the resources to make cob in your own garden. Cob is a mixture of clay, subsoil, gravel and straw which dries naturally in the sun. As a result, for many builds no fuel is used in transporting resources and there is no manufacturing involved. 

“Cement alone is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions. And the modern building industry is responsible for 45% of CO2 emissions. So you just feel like, wow, what if I could do something more friendly to the planet?”

It’s also completely repairable and reusable. Edwards tells us about buildings made with natural materials that have stood in Jericho since 8,000 BC.

Cob buildings are remarkably easy to maintain and repair. If a part of the wall chips off, all you have to do is slap a handful of cob back on there. Even if a cob building needs to be knocked down, the materials can just be used to build another! Edwards says this is why other types of ‘green’ building methods cannot even compare. 

We’ve discussed the potential held in low-tech before on the podcast and cob mirrors many of these benefits. It also gives autonomy and power back to the builder. Edwards relates that many people who come on her courses are making an effort to reconnect with the natural world.

Making things with our hands affords a type of autonomy and fulfilment that is not gained through conventional building practices. Edwards hopes that we can unlearn the ways that industrialisation changed building. Hopefully, more people will gain the confidence to build their own homes from the materials around them. 

“It literally changes people’s lives because people have this utter realisation that they can do it and they can create something that’s valuable from nothing – from mud. It’s utterly transformative.”

While Edwards jokes that these reasons for loving cob may seem “hippy-dippy”, there are also legitimate structural and health benefits to this practice.

Since cob houses are built from natural resources, these materials do not contain the same chemicals as more conventional modern builds. As a result, houses will not develop issues like damp and the damage that comes along with it and inhabitants may be less likely to develop asthma or similar conditions. 

It’s clear that the resurgence of cob building is only going to continue to grow. It isn’t just houses or renovations that Edwards builds either. She loves cob partly because of her passion for sculpture and is regularly involved in art commissions and historical restorations.

She tells us about a few of her upcoming projects alongside other builders and sculptors from across the UK, France and India. Despite the barriers to cob becoming widespread in its use once more, the work that Edwards does is proving its power. 

Links: 

[Photo courtesy of Edwards Cob Building]

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