The Restart Project Blog

As part of our International Repair Day celebrations this year, we are thrilled to release the latest Open Repair Alliance (ORA) dataset – our vast open dataset of information on items and repairs seen at community repair events around the world.

Back in August 2022, we opened the doors to our very first Fixing Factory.

We’ve been waiting for policies to support repair and reuse in the UK for years.

With two months to go, International Repair Day is right around the corner.

This is a guest post by Keith Brady, Project Lead for Repair Cafe Gosport One of the best pieces of advice I have had professionally is “never ask a senior person a question; give them something obvious to say yes to”.

The UK has a new Prime Minister and a new cabinet.

At Restart, we do all we can to make repair more accessible.

We’re big fans of independent repair businesses here at The Restart Project.

Yesterday (Wednesday 10 June), we detected a security breach affecting two of our websites.

Amid the political maneuvering in Westminster following last week’s elections, one trend remains clear: parliamentary support for repair and reuse continues to strengthen.

This week we’re taking part in the Big Give’s Earth Raise campaign.

Amazon has announced that from the 20th of May it will stop supporting all Kindle and Kindle Fire devices it released in 2012 or earlier.

Yesterday, we took repair back into Parliament.

We’re once again joining forces with Possible to open two new Fixing Factories in London!

One hundred MPs have now shown their support for repair and reuse.

At Restart, we’ve long imagined a world where repair offers an easy way to save money, pick up useful skills and do our bit for the planet.

Hi, I’m Arthur and I’m the Fixing Factory Lead at The Restart Project!

As 2025 draws to a close, we’re taking a look back on a jam-packed year of repair.

Behind every broken product is a story.

Last weekend, on International Repair Day, groups around the world came together en masse to celebrate repair, engage with their local community and combat software obsolescence.

Today—International E-Waste Day—Microsoft has triggered a potential tsunami of e-waste by ending free and automatic software updates for hundreds of millions of computers running Windows 10.

On October 14th, Microsoft will end free support for Windows 10, pushing millions of PCs (almost half of all Windows computers) into premature obsolescence and generating avoidable e-waste.

Back in July, we sent a business-focused letter to Steve Reed, the then Secretary of State for DEFRA, the UK government’s environment department.

Neil Electrics is a stalwart of Haringey, having been founded by Roma & Kish Gulrajani some 32 years ago in what was originally known as Wood Green Shopping City.

In September, we’re bringing together fixers, community organisers, activists, researchers, policy makers, educators and repair businesses from around the world for Fixfest 2025.

In early July we sent an open letter to Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for the Environment.

On the 14th of October—ironically on International E-Waste Day—Microsoft will end free support for Windows 10, a decision that will lead to an enormous increase in electronic waste.

Yesterday we once again teamed up with Back Market to bring repair into the Houses of Parliament, and we were delighted that 33 MPs dropped in to see us, with another 5 represented by staff.

We are absolutely thrilled to announce the return of Fixfest, which will take place in London (UK) from 5-6 September, 2025.

At the end of March, the UK government’s environment department (DEFRA) announced the five priority work streams of its Circular Economy Taskforce.

The UK is the second highest producer of electronic waste per capita in the world.

We are so excited to announce the launch of our second Fixing Factory!

Tariffs.

Learn the results of our voucher scheme Our trial voucher scheme ended in 2026 and helped over 1,000 people access more affordable repair.

‘The only constant is change’, or so goes the old cliché.

On 27th March Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) set out the department’s plans to transition to a circular economy.

Learn the results of our voucher scheme Our trial voucher scheme ended in 2026 and helped over 1,000 people access more affordable repair.

We’re happy to announce that Restart has been accepted as a member of the new EU’s Ecodesign Forum.

For years we’ve been demonstrating how repair and reuse can bring communities together, save people money, teach new skills, reduce waste and so much more.

We’re always getting asked about opportunities for upskilling and where to start if you want to be a DIY repairer or volunteer.

This post from our co-founder Ugo Vallauri was originally published on Euroconsumers.

2024 has been a huge year for us, campaigning loudly for repair and reuse in the UK.

This has been another amazing year for Restart and repair in general.

It’s that time of year again.. our calendars get booked with Christmas socials; we’re thinking about presents… and the charity appeals for donations start.

For Repair Day 2024, we continued our theme of Repair for Everyone and that meant that part of our goal was to expand events further than we previously had.

This October marks 15 years since the world’s first repair café was held by Dutch journalist Martine Postma.

We are so excited to announce that we’ve been awarded £1.27 million in National Lottery funding over the next three years—shared with our partners, climate action charity Possible—to bring our innovative Fixing Factories to three new high streets across L…

This guest post is by Frank Schoofs, organiser of the Marlow Repair Café and founder of The Repair Finder Ltd.

With a new government in place, we’re ready to pick up the campaign for a UK right to repair!

This article first appeared on Forbes.com New right-to-repair laws in Europe aim to reduce waste, extend product lifespans, and move us past “throw-away” mindsets and products (think: single use plastics, fast fashion, smartphone upgrades).