Repair café in Moncton keeps dozens of items out of the landfill

Moncton's Renald Daigle diagnosed a broken vacuum in five minutes and took another three to fix it for free.

It was Daigle's second quick fix after he repaired a broken wooden table at a repair café event on Saturday at Moncton's Youth Quest building on St. George Street.

He said he has 45 years of experience and can repair a range of electronic and mechanical items.

"As a young guy I was always interested in tearing stuff apart," he said.

The event was inspired by a global repair café movement that began in the Netherlands in 2007, said Daigle.

The goal is to reduce environmental impact by using objects for a longer period of time, he said.

Daigle said not everything can be repaired because parts aren't always available. He said people should make smarter purchases and reduce wastage.

"If you come to my place, everything has been used, and well used, and most of the time it is repaired at least a couple of times," he said.

The event was organized by a Moncton non-profit group called RepairVerse, which aims to repair and extend the life of objects.

Ali Ahmar, the non-profit's founder, said he is a minimalist when it comes to making purchases and he believes in preserving resources. That's what drove him to host the event in Moncton.

"I wanted to help people get their stuff repaired, I wanted to help the environment by decreasing waste," he said.

Fourteen volunteers repaired items that included electronics, clothing, small wooden items and jewelry.

About 24 items were repaired within the first three hours, Ahmar said.

He said some repair enthusiasts were turned away due to space constraints. He said the event has motivated him to have it on the second Saturday of every month.