Grafrath, Fürstenfeldbruck, Eichenau, Gröbenzell, Puchheim, Olching - many municipalities have had a repair café for some time.
Eight years ago, however, Gerhard Busch was the pioneer.
Germering - With volunteers from the Bible study group of the Free Evangelical Church in Germering, he opened the first repair café in the district.
Even in nearby Munich there were only two of this type to date.
“We asked ourselves what we could do in a meaningful way for the city,” says Gerhard Busch from discussions in the Bible study group in 2013. At that time, he had only seen a TV report about a repair café in Berlin. “And we were actually well staffed with repairs for bicycles, computers and electrical appliances,” says Busch.
This was followed by a brief inquiry to the city and to the owner of the Repaircafé, the Free Evangelical Church.
Then the first afternoon of the campaign started with five repairmen.
“We asked ourselves whether anyone would come at all,” recalls Busch.
The café manager and his four colleagues were taught better: "We were overrun," says Busch.
25 citizens showed up at the end with their defective items.
“Some who had to wait asked if they could repair something,” says Busch.
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The AWB promotes waste avoidance.
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Since the premiere, the group of helpers has grown to 30 volunteers over the years. Since then, repairs and patches have been carried out every last Saturday of the month under the motto “helping people to help themselves”. Repaircafé manager Gerhard Busch learned from an early age that one should first try to repair defective household items instead of throwing them away. “We had a lot of machines on our farm and the work was often brutal,” says Busch. That's why something often broke. You couldn't afford a repair every time, so you did it yourself. “That's why I've always been interested in technology,” says Germeringer, who now works in the software division at Siemens.
“Even at home, something is only thrown away if it cannot be repaired,” says Busch.
He passed this understanding on to his two sons.
Both have also already helped out in the café.
“The awareness that things have a value and that they are worth repairing is more likely to be felt by the elderly,” reports Busch from his experience at the Repaircafé.
But the younger generation is also slowly developing a feeling for it.
Because of the pandemic, the Repaircafé has to take place in a slimmed-down form at the moment.
Objects can be handed in with advance notice and picked up again later.
"We hope that it will be possible again next year with coffee and cake," says the Repaircafé manager.
"Because it does not help people to help themselves."
The European
Waste Prevention Week (EWAV) ends on Sunday.
In cooperation with the waste management company of the Fürstenfeldbruck district, the daily newspaper presents organizations and people from the district who are committed to more sustainability and less waste.
There is also a daily tip on how to avoid waste.
Also interesting:
Public bookcase: swap reading instead of throwing it away