The Bathgate Repair Cafe is a 6-month, community-led pilot project designed to research and deliver a practical solution to household waste and the cost-of-living crisis. The awarded group will establish a monthly repair hub at their community market, where a skilled fixer and volunteers will repair broken items for free, diverting them from landfill.

The research will collect data on the weight of items saved, types of repairs, and financial savings for families. The researchers will also gather qualitative data on how learning repair skills improves community resilience, wellbeing, and feelings of social isolation. The findings will be used to create a “Community Repair Hub Toolkit”, a practical, scalable guide for other communities to replicate our model.