Repair Cafes Return to Beacon

Events aim to keep household items from landfill

You bring it, they’ll fix it. 

That was the goal back in 2016 when Beacon resident Antony Tseng organized the city’s first repair cafe at the Howland Cultural Center. 

For those unfamiliar with the concept, people may bring a stuffed animal missing an eye or two, garments in need of mending or the most common item, a malfunctioning lamp, to the free event. A team of volunteer “fixers” do their best to restore the items to working condition. 

Organizers say the fixers are successful about 80 percent of the time, which keeps most of the toys (or kitchen appliances or electronic items) out of the waste stream. Attendees, no doubt some of them children, leave satisfied, while the city earns points that, over time, make it eligible for climate-resiliency funding from New York State. It’s a win-win-win.

The pandemic and a shift in his work schedule slowed Tseng, who last organized a repair cafe in Beacon in 2020. But a new group of organizers was awarded $1,000 this year by the city through its Community Investment Program, which supports nonprofits and Beacon-centric initiatives. 

The team held its first event in June at the Recreation Center, where 14 volunteers repaired 85 items. 

The next one is scheduled for Oct. 27, also at the Recreation Center at 23 W. Center St., from 1 to 4 p.m. Residents are encouraged to bring items such as electronics, textiles, furniture, lamps, jewelry and bicycles. Tseng will return as a volunteer “tinkerer,” as he puts it, as he did in June.  

“People were over the moon,” said Jen Clapp, who helped organize the June and October events. “They were leaving with fixed items and smiles on their faces. We had so many volunteers working, it was like Santa’s workshop.”

The plan is to again hold two events in Beacon in 2025, as well as one in Fishkill. 

The primary draw of a repair cafe is resurrecting a sentimental or costly item that no longer works quite right, but the concept’s roots are in sustainability. The first one was organized by a journalist in the Netherlands in 2009. Since then, more than 2,500 have been held worldwide. 

The local movement dates to 2012, when John Wackman, a Kingston resident who died in 2021, founded Repair Cafe Hudson Valley. Wackman was honored in 2016 by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which said, at the time, that events in the region had diverted tens of thousands of pounds of solid waste from landfills and prevented tens of thousands of metric tons of carbon emissions.

The Hudson Valley initiative has grown to encompass cafes in 50 municipalities that kept more than 6,000 items out of the waste stream last year. 

It’s particularly important not to throw away electronics, which made up about 25 percent of the items repaired in Beacon in June, because they contain chemicals and metals, including lead, that should not enter the soil, water or air (through incineration), said Faye Leone, the city’s coordinator for the state Climate Smart Communities program.

According to the state’s climate scoping plan, manufacturing products and packaging use more than 50 percent of the energy consumed worldwide and is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming. The plan names waste reduction among its strategies for combatting climate change. 

By holding two repair cafes this year, Beacon will earn points toward renewing its silver certification, which expires next year, in the Climate Smart program. The city has already gained access to grants and technical support on its climate projects by attaining silver, the highest level.