Many who care about sustainability and reducing waste might find another important practice increasingly harder to come by: repairing something before replacing it. For example, my smart watch doesn’t make it through the day anymore. Rather than simply getting a new one, I can get the battery replaced for under $100. The same can be done for smart phones. 

Repairing gets more complicated with other devices and appliances. A generation or so ago, folks would repair lawnmowers, vacuum cleaners, TVs and other appliances before replacing them. But with million-dollar marketing campaigns and an economy based on consumption, we end up with fewer and fewer professionals left to repair things. We end up trashing all sorts of machines and devices that with a little care, could have stayed out of the landfill and given us more years of service. Repairing also saves money and supports a skilled labor community or local businesses. 

When our family’s beloved espresso machine malfunctioned, I was certainly tempted to upgrade to a fancier new machine, although they are expensive. But throwing away a beautiful stainless-steel machine seemed to be such a waste. I decided to ship it to the store in New York (WholeLatteLove.com) for a repair. After months in the repair shop, it was returned home only to discover one of the replacement parts had failed again. And although the store did right by us and refunded the repair cost (I highly recommend them for the record), we were back with a broken machine and no way to make espresso. 

Now I was second guessing my efforts at reducing waste (not to mention all the time spent). 

My wife then mentioned the Fix-It Shop at the Lexington Community Center. Might this machine’s journey have one more saving chance to avoid the scrap pile? 

I brought our machine to the Fix-It Shop, and they were happy to give a repair a try. First Chuck then David Lieb diligently worked on the machine. They had me order parts and even after we received the wrong part more than once, David didn’t give up! He eventually found the correct part, which we ordered and he installed. 

This week, I received a call from the incredibly friendly Fix-It Shop coordinator who told me the machine was repaired! After many months, I couldn’t believe it. I brought it home and as of this morning, we are back in home-espresso-making joy, and our machine avoided the scrap yard.

I hope this story encourages others to consider repairing before replacing something. I highly recommend the Lexington Community Center Fix-It Shop and its amazing group of dedicated volunteers. Thank you, David and the wonderful team at the Fix-It Shop!! 

Alex Tsouvalas

[The Fix-It Shop is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays 9:00 – 11:45 a.m. Please call to make an appointment: 781-698-4866 or 781-698-4840.]

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2 Comments

  1. I completely agree with fixing instead of buying new. We have had several successful trips to the Fix-It Shop.

    If you are not already, consider shopping at Center Goods instead of continuously buying new plastic containers of “stuff”. We were early adopters. My family has not purchased a new bottle of shampoo, body wash, hand soap, dishwasher detergent, or laundry detergent since the shop opened.

    Also, consider reducing or eliminating your purchases on Amazon and shopping local instead. In all of retail, Amazon is the biggest contributor to climate change and global warming and is also the single biggest source of trash. The only purchase my family has made on Amazon in the last twenty years was when one of my daughter’s babysitting clients gave her an Amazon Gift Card for Christmas. https://greenamerica.org/consume-less-live-more/why-we-should-quit-amazon

  2. Good topic. I like to think about about “stuff” — ranging from pants, plates, cars, and espresso makers — in terms of theromdynamics and entropy. Mind you my knowledge of this stuff is about at a 3rd grade level, but even a 3rd grader knows that all the play-doh turns brown when the kids have used it for more than a few hours, and that it is nearly impossible to turn brown play-doh back into those orignial extrusions of blue, pink, purple, orange etc. When you take an old espresso machine and put it in the trash, it will be turned into the entropic equivalent of brown play-doh. If you get it repaired, you can continue making pink pancakes, even if you need to invest some $ or time to get there. For pants, I love ThredUP — I know my brands and my size and I can filter for things like “under $20” and “Very good condition” offseting someone else’s brown play-doh problem while also solving my own need for pants to replace the ones that just split down the crotch (which, honestly, was awkward when I discovered it wandering the aisles of home depot looking for weather stripping last winter).

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