SUSTAINABILITY
The Circle of Life GIVE UNWANTED OR FAULTY GOODS A NEW LEASE OF LIFE BY GETTING INVOLVED WITH CAMBRIDGE’S CIRCULAR ECONOMY ECO CAMBRIDGE
WORDS BY ALEX FICE
hese days, buying new or replacing broken items is easier than ever, with e-commerce giants offering enticing deals and
handy next-day delivery options – all from the comfort of your sofa. But as demand for new products rises, so does the pressure on the planet’s precious resources. There’s no two ways about it: our current consumer habits are wrecking the world with waste. The circular economy offers an alternative to the linear consumer model of buy, use, bin. Designed to eliminate waste and pollution by circulating products and materials through schemes such as repair cafes and gift economies, the circular economy is an important framework for changing behaviours in a way that promotes altruism and more sustainable consumer habits. Cambridge has a wealth of initiatives inspired by the circular economy, run by groups such as Life is a gift, Transition Cambridge and Cambridge Carbon Footprint. We spoke to two of them to find out more. CAMBRIDGE CARBON FOOTPRINT Cambridge Carbon Footprint (CCF) supports people in Cambridgeshire to reduce their home energy use and consumerist habits, while promoting more sustainable modes of travel and climate-friendly diets. Each year, it runs or supports around 60 events, with the help of over 400 enthusiastic volunteers.
One of its main areas of work includes supporting over 30 individual repair cafes in the region. These help people prolong the life of household items, so they’re not thrown into waste disposal prematurely. CCF invites dozens of repairers – from electronics engineers to DIYers, jewellery menders and sewers – to lend their expertise for free. “Many of our fixers are retired senior engineers that love to keep using their skills and introduce visitors to repairing. They are passionate about saving the earth’s precious resources and keeping stuff out of landfill,” says Nicole Barton, volunteer and events co-ordinator at Cambridge Carbon Footprint. Repair cafes also play an important role in restoring treasured family heirlooms, which might otherwise be left to collect dust in some forgotten nook of the house. At a recent repair cafe in Arbury, a woman was moved deeply to hear her childhood music box play again, after retrieving it from the attic following her mother’s passing. Another remarkable fix saw a vintage gramophone play a record for the first time in ten years. “Some repairs are very sentimental,” says Nicole. “It can be like TV’s The Repair Shop or the ‘ Antiques Roadshow with tissues ’ as we like to call it!” Over the eight years CCF has supported repair cafes in Cambridgeshire,
In 2018, CCF broke the world record for holding the world’s biggest repair cafe, at St Barnabas Church, taking the title from a cafe in France. MAKING HISTORY
Nicole and her colleague Kate Boursnell have received consistently positive feedback from visitors. “We think it’s because a repair cafe is like a little utopia. You walk into a super-friendly community space, where a load of talented people are just waiting to help you out – not for payment or an ulterior motive, but just because they can,” says Nicole. “It’s a positive place, one that hints at the alluring possibility of a different future, one of mutual aid, community, reuse and cherishing what we have – rather than heading straight for the new, while creating yet more pollution. There’s always lots of chatter and homemade cake, too!” Visit cambridgecarbonfootprint.org to find out when your next local repair cafe is taking place. Places are often booked well in advance, but there is usually space for drop-ins.
CHERISH AND REPAIR Learning to treasure and fix objects is one step in the journey of self-recovery from the hyper-consumerism of the modern age
64 JUNE 2022 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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