Repair cafés, community workshops, spare parts, repair guides and makerspaces.
At a repair café, volunteers help you open the toaster or sew up the torn jacket yourself, usually for a donation. Repair guides and spare-part shops let you carry on at home.
“Que faire de mes objets et déchets ?” is a free website of ADEME, the French agency for ecological transition: typing the name of an object or a type of waste shows how to repair, give away, resell…
Alternative to throwing everything in the bin because you don’t know who repairs, takes back or recycles it
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iFixit is a free online repair manual with tens of thousands of illustrated, step-by-step guides for phones, laptops, consoles, household appliances and more, written by the company and its community…
Alternative to manufacturers’ after-sales services that are expensive or refuse to repair, and replacing a device at the first fault
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L’Heureux Cyclage is the French network of community bike workshops: associations where you repair your own bike with their tools and the advice of volunteers or staff, for a small membership fee.
Alternative to paying a bike shop for every repair, or buying a new bike
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A Repair Café is a free meeting where volunteers help people repair their own broken things: toasters, lamps, clothes, bikes, toys, laptops. It is an alternative to throwing away a broken appliance…
Alternative to throwing away broken appliances and buying new ones, often because repair seems too expensive
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Compagnons Bâtisseurs is a French network of associations that helps low-income tenants and owners repair and renovate their own homes themselves, with a building professional and volunteers at their…
Alternative to paying a contractor for every repair when money is short
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smarticular is a German website and publisher with free recipes for making cleaning and laundry products from a few basic ingredients, such as baking soda, washing soda, vinegar, citric acid and curd…
Alternative to buying a separate cleaning product for every job
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Spareka is a French website that helps people repair their own household appliances: free fault diagnosis, more than 900 free tutorials, video help from a professional technician and spare parts for…
Alternative to throwing away a broken appliance or paying for a call-out
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Worn Wear is Patagonia’s programme for used and repaired clothing: the outdoor brand buys back its own garments, resells them second-hand and repairs them under its Ironclad Guarantee, so that a…
Alternative to buying new outdoor clothing and gear
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Fix it before you replace it
Waste, recycling and zero waste
Second-hand, swapping, lending and sharing
Electronics and home appliances
Mobility, cars and transport
Neighbourhood, community spaces and local networks
Housing, building and renovation
Household and personal care
Leisure, sport and outdoor gear
Clothing and mending