We’re delighted to have been awarded the European Union Prize for Citizen Science—Digital Communities Award for our work with repair data and policy campaigning.
Repair Data
We collect data on every repair that we attempt at our events using our Fixometer app. We then use that data to provide insights into the devices and problems we see to those who design, manufacture and regulate products in the first place. We want to identify the barriers to repair that people come up against, whether it’s lack of spare parts, poor documentation, or simply bad design.
We’re also a founding member of the Open Repair Alliance, which shares information and insights with repair organisations around the world. And we’re exploring the availability of reliable commercial repairers, with our Repair Directory.
Get involved!
Read on
Here's what we are learning and from our work on repair data
We witnessed too many working devices ending up as waste during our research in West London. Filtering and diverting products for reuse should be mandatory. We’ve been working to expand the directory to cover 8 new boroughs in West London and we’ve managed to add 147 businesses to the directory! We used our data about broken electronics to learn why they break, focusing on printers, tablets and batteries. Now we’re using these lessons to push for pro-repair regulation. “BattCat” is our latest interactive, people-powered investigation into why devices fail. This time we’re asking for your help to learn why repairs involving batteries at community events are often too hard to complete. Our devices come with a hidden environmental impact. We reveal what we learned about different products and how, by repairing our gadgets when they break, we can reduce their overall impact. Tablets break easily and can be hard to repair. In fact most don’t last as long as porridge oats in the cupboard. Help us learn why by playing “Tabicat”, a fun way to collaboratively analyse community repair data. Printers can be frustrating – easy to break and hard to fix. Join PrintCat to help us learn why they fail and push for more repairable future models
What a waste: our study shows almost half of electricals sent for recycling could be reused
The Repair Directory now has 300 listings following our West London expansion!
Why our electronics break: what we can learn from nearly 10 years of repairs
Help us learn why batteries are too hard to replace
The environmental impact of our devices: revealing what many companies hide
How do tablets break? Help us find out!
Help us learn more about printers with PrintCat