The UN has highlighted electronic waste as the world's fastest growing waste stream. And the UK is one of the world's largest contributors to the problem. Organisations in London communities are trying to tackle this issue head on and develop the notion of the circular economy, encouraging people to prioritise repairing and borrowing over needlessly buying new items.
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00:00 On a market street in North London, these volunteers aren't selling things, they're
00:05 fixing them.
00:08 Dermot Jones is the project manager of the Camden Fixing Factory, where people take their
00:12 broken household goods to try and give them a new lease of life.
00:16 We're on a mission to rescue things that people might otherwise just throw away and start
00:23 googling reviews of new ones.
00:26 When we buy things for the home, we've fallen into the kind of acceptance that it's a short
00:30 term contract, it's going to die, we'll have to throw it away and buy another one.
00:35 But that's a blip.
00:36 We don't do that with cars, we don't do it with bicycles, we don't do it with industrial
00:38 machinery, yet somehow we accept that in the home.
00:43 And that's one of the things we want to turn around.
00:45 Electronic waste, or e-waste, is a major problem around the world.
00:50 The UK is the second biggest producer of e-waste per capita, according to comparison service
00:54 U-Switch.
00:56 They predict it will take the top spot next year.
01:02 The Fixing Factory opened two years ago and relies on public funding.
01:08 Often the fixes show customers exactly what's wrong with their items, so they can deal with
01:12 future problems.
01:14 We're demystifying it as well, so a lot of people would be terrified to open a vacuum
01:18 cleaner or open an amplifier.
01:21 We take them through how to do it safely, what the stages are, and they don't become
01:25 an expert after doing it, but they know it can be done.
01:28 So when another thing breaks, they think, "Oh, I wonder how I'd get into that, whether
01:32 it's a simple fix like the last time or what."
01:35 But at least it's in their mind.
01:38 Across town in West London, a shopping centre hosts a different approach to closing the
01:43 circle of purchasing and throwing away.
01:46 Here a library of things offers a range of household goods for borrowing.
01:49 The library of things kiosk.
01:52 In our kiosk today we've got everything from a carpet cleaner to a hedge trimmer and
01:59 then a whole bunch of other useful items from staple guns to hand saws to a pressure washer.
02:05 So the whole aim of library of things is to make borrowing better than buying.
02:10 One of the primary outcomes of that is to reduce wasteful consumerism, so reduce the
02:15 amount of things that are unnecessarily going to landfill, or ultimately reduce the amount
02:21 of things that are made in the first place.
02:24 The first library of things opened in South London nearly a decade ago.
02:29 Since then, a network of sites has grown to serve users across London with more in the
02:33 works.
02:34 A friend contacted me and said, as I said, "I needed to deep clean my carpet."
02:40 And I said, "God, how expensive it was to try and get one of these companies to come
02:44 in and clean the carpets or even buy one of the machines yourself."
02:47 And she told me about the library of things and said, "No, no, don't buy one and don't
02:50 get someone to do it for you.
02:51 You can rent the machine.
02:52 It's really cheap.
02:53 You only borrow it for a day or two for as long as you need it and it's really reasonable."
02:56 So I think it's really great that people can borrow and extend the lifespan of all these
03:01 things without having to use them once or twice a year and then not kind of need them
03:05 again.
03:07 Items are available to borrow from a pound a day for a staple gun up to £22.50 for the
03:12 carpet cleaner.
03:15 Back in the fixing factory, a kettle is receiving life-saving surgery.
03:20 Eventually, a breakthrough.
03:25 It's a seemingly small act, but for each item fixed here or borrowed from the library of
03:29 things, these organisations are having a big impact on how people approach sustainability.
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