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#RightToRepair

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#Canada - How a #ScarboroughOntario couple is building community, one repair at a time

by Jessica Patterson
Published March 28, 2025

"Once a month, volunteers gather in a Scarborough, Ont., community centre to fix broken appliances, bicycles, housewares and computers and mend torn clothing – all for free. The Mid-Scarborough Hub Repair Café was launched 18 months ago by Krissan Veerasingam and Fizza Khalid, a couple on a mission to make Scarborough a kinder, greener place.

They both have day jobs – Mr. Veerasingam is a software developer, Ms. Khalid is a health and safety adviser – but volunteering is a big part of their lives. They founded the Scarborough Environmental Association (SEA), a non-profit organization that hosts events like pollinator plant giveaways, clothing swaps, sewing workshops and park clean-ups. The Repair Café is a key SEA initiative, focused on supporting low-income and historically disenfranchised communities. (Repair Cafés originated in Amsterdam in 2009 and there are now more than 3500 of them around the world.)"

Read more:
theglobeandmail.com/investing/

Link to #Ontario #RepairCafes:
repaircafetoronto.ca/upcoming-
#SolarPunkSunday #RepairCafesONT #RightToRepair #RepairCafe #SolarPunk #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair

The Globe and Mail · How a Scarborough couple is building community, one repair at a timeBy Jessica Patterson

#introduction
Mastodon is my digital hygiene compromise, I'm still spending too much time online but now #bloomscrolling instead of doomscrolling. #mosstodon changed for ever the way I'm hiking.
I try to be deliberate in boosting beauty, from #pottery to #squirrel to #hopepunk because I believe we as a species cannot function on anger and fear alone.
Also #RightToRepair #TransRightsAreHumanRights #FightForLibraries #SmashPatriarchy and many more.
One day I'll manage a #MardiPatisserie !

I am seriously thinking about hunting down the designer of the Nespresso Pixie as having spent two days (on and off) opening it up to clean the filter (5 minutes) I have now spent all afternoon trying to get it to go back together!

The sooner the EU outlaws the use little plastic clips to hold things together the better.

Replied in thread

@jubei @504DR @gerrymcgovern A *very* unsophisticated search for shark vacuum brought up these parts for #3dPrinting printables.com/model/888803-re

Of course I can’t know if these are anywhere near what you’re looking for.
Either way, there is many parts and accessories available if you have access to a 3d printer.
printables.com/search/models?q

A more elaborate search is likely to yield better results. Or design your own spare parts and share.
#RightToRepair

Printables.comReplacement Small Wheel for Shark NV700 (UKT) Vacuum by DB3DUK | Download free STL model | Printables.comReplacement small wheel for the Shark NV700 (UKT) vacuum - positioned near the front of the floor nozzle. | Download free 3D printable STL models

#Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help

Wealthy countries can create prosperity while using less materials and energy if they abandon #EconomicGrowth as an objective.

By Jason Hickel, Giorgos Kallis, Tim Jackson, Daniel W. O’Neill, Juliet B. Schor, Julia K. Steinberger, Peter A. Victor & Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, 12 December 2022

Excerpt: "The global economy is structured around growth — the idea that firms, industries and nations must increase production every year, regardless of whether it is needed. This dynamic is driving climate change and ecological breakdown. High-income economies, and the corporations and wealthy classes that dominate them, are mainly responsible for this problem and consume energy and materials at unsustainable rates.

"Yet many industrialized countries are now struggling to grow their economies, given economic convulsions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, resource scarcities and stagnating productivity improvements. Governments face a difficult situation. Their attempts to stimulate growth clash with objectives to improve human well-being and reduce environmental damage.

"GDP is getting a makeover — what it means for economies, health and the planet

"Researchers in ecological economics call for a different approach — degrowth. Wealthy economies should abandon growth of gross domestic product (#GDP) as a goal, scale down destructive and unnecessary forms of #production to reduce energy and material use, and focus economic activity around securing human needs and well-being. This approach, which has gained traction in recent years, can enable rapid #decarbonization and stop ecological breakdown while improving social outcomes. It frees up energy and materials for low- and middle-income countries in which growth might still be needed for development. Degrowth is a purposeful strategy to stabilize economies and achieve social and ecological goals, unlike recession, which is chaotic and socially destabilizing and occurs when growth-dependent economies fail to grow.

"Reports this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (#IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on #Biodiversity and #Ecosystem Services (#IPBES) suggest that degrowth policies should be considered in the fight against #ClimateBreakdown and #biodiversity loss, respectively. Policies to support such a strategy include the following.

"Reduce less-necessary production. This means scaling down destructive sectors such as #FossilFuels, mass-produced meat and dairy, #FastFashion, #advertising, #cars and aviation, including #PrivateJets. At the same time, there is a need to end the #PlannedObsolescence of products, lengthen their lifespans and reduce the purchasing power of the #rich.

"Improve #PublicServices. It is necessary to ensure universal access to high-quality #HealthCare, #Education, #Housing, transportation, Internet, #RenewableEnergy and nutritious food. #UniversalPublicServices can deliver strong social outcomes without high levels of resource use.

"Introduce a green jobs guarantee. This would train and mobilize labour around urgent social and ecological objectives, such as installing renewables, insulating buildings, regenerating #ecosystems and improving social care. A programme of this type would end unemployment and ensure a just transition out of jobs for workers in declining industries or 'sunset sectors', such as those contingent on fossil fuels. It could be paired with a #UniversalIncome policy.

"Reduce working time. This could be achieved by lowering the retirement age, encouraging part-time working or adopting a four-day working week [and hybrid or remote work]. These measures would lower #CarbonEmissions and free people to engage in care and other welfare-improving activities. They would also stabilize employment as less-necessary production declines.

"Enable #sustainable development. This requires cancelling unfair and unpayable debts of low- and middle-income countries, curbing unequal exchange in international trade and creating conditions for productive capacity to be reoriented towards achieving social objectives.

"Some countries, regions and cities have already introduced elements of these policies. Many European nations guarantee free health care and education; Vienna and Singapore are renowned for high-quality public housing; and nearly 100 cities worldwide offer free public transport. Job guarantee schemes have been used by many nations in the past, and experiments with basic incomes and shorter working hours are under way in Finland, Sweden and New Zealand.

"But implementing a more comprehensive strategy of degrowth — in a safe and just way — faces five key research challenges, as we outline here."

Read more:
nature.com/articles/d41586-022

Archived version:
archive.ph/AtJ87
#FourDayWorkweek #RemoteWork #HybridWork #CircularEconomy #CapitalismKills #RightToRepair #ProtectMotherEarth #CorporateColonialism #BuyLess #BuyNothing #LibraryOfThings #SolarPunkSunday

www.nature.comDegrowth can work — here’s how science can helpWealthy countries can create prosperity while using less materials and energy if they abandon economic growth as an objective.

Must say there is something beautiful and healing about seeing a bunch of strangers in a #repairCafe helping each other fix their rice cookers, format their laptops, sew their teddy bears, patch up their clothes, figure out ways to solve problems with what they've got right there and each other.

Highly recommended activity to restore faith in ordinary people when we see so much cruelty from the top.

Continued thread

I also learned that there are #repairCafe events all over the country, visit one and get someone to help you fix your broken thing.
Or go and help fix broken things, if you have the skills.
Or just hang out with them.

Here is their calendar.
repaircafeaotearoa.co.nz/calen

Repair Café AotearoaCalendar of Events | Repair Café AotearoaComprehensive calendar of Repair Cafe's occuring throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.

I went to a #repairCafe today and got my ebike charger fixed for at least another 4 years of daily usage (I hope). 🚲 ⚡

Repairing things is good for the earth, for our pockets and for society in general.
The NZ Parliament is looking at a bill about this. 🔧

Please make a submission so repairing becomes the standard and we keep things out of the landfill for as long as possible.

Deadline is April 3rd.

repairnetworkaotearoa.org.nz/r

Repair Network AoteaRight to Repair Bill | Repair Network AotearoaAotearoa has an exciting opportunity to make it easier for us all to get our stuff repaired when it breaks. We need your help to turn this opportunity into reality.