In a world of fast fashion and cheap electronics, it can be too easy to buy new rather than repairing what we have. The Remade Network aims to offer an alternative as a one-stop shop for bringing life back into our goods.

By Sophie Unwin

This November, when Glasgow hosts COP26, Remade Network will be three years old. It’s a chance for us to reflect on the impact of the work we’ve done. So much of this has been centred in Govanhill, where last summer, we set up our first project with Govanhill Baths. Our mission has always been two-fold; tackling both climate change and inequality. We see the two as inextricably connected.

This has translated in practice into three different activities: setting up affordable repair and recycling services for clothes, electricals and electronics (first in Govanhill and recently in Glasgow’s East End), refurbishing and redistributing 1200 computers, as well as running workshops and training around repair skills for the public.

Such has been the demand for our services that we not only expanded to a high street shop on Victoria Road in April, but have also opened a new repair outlet in the East End with Cranhill Development Trust. Other communities regularly request similar services.

In this way, we are harnessing the energy of 15-minute neighbourhoods, rather than blaming people for not reusing, recycling and repairing enough. We make it easier for people to access affordable services. Our amazing technicians have fixed all kinds of things – radios, jeans, computers – helping people to keep their valued items for longer and avoid buying new.

Alongside these repair kiosks, we’ve opened up a new tech drop service with funding from the Recycle Your Electricals Campaign, a UK-wide movement aiming to make it easier to recycle electrical and electronic items.

Repair is our first choice. In fact, repair creates ten times as many jobs as recycling and that’s part of what motivates our work. In the past year we’ve grown from three part-time staff to 12 full-time staff and five paid trainees, which shows the level of demand for our services.

The collaboration of community groups across Govanhill has helped create a low-cost local model that works and has meaningful impact, and we’re proud that we can replicate it elsewhere. Whilst the support of local people is essential, our message calls for much more than behavioural change – it’s about systemic change. We need to replace our death-cult extractive economy with a regenerative economy, and we don’t have time to lose. This means campaigning for goods to be built to last and challenging vested interests, as well as championing making repair more accessible and affordable, not just through our own shops but through neighbouring projects and businesses.

It has been really encouraging that Glasgow City Council has supported our model of working with communities. We gained a contract from them to refurbish and redistribute computers because all profits go back into the communities we serve. It’s an affordable model for them to support, with 250 tonnes of CO₂ diverted in the past year, for an investment of less than £20,000.

This is not charity. It’s about democracy: showing that communities can come together to redistribute resources to where they are needed. Showing how scavenging and recycling can help us repair our world by changing our perceptions of the everyday objects we use and own. It’s not just wasteful to throw things away. It’s wasteful to buy new, and to overlook the people amongst us whose skills and talents are vital to regenerating their own communities.

As one customer said to me: “We need to look after the objects we own, like they look after us.” Repairing is about problem solving, learning and recognising that practical skills are just as valuable as academic qualifications. We all have something to give and we all have something to learn.